Darkest Hearts
by Maelstra
Summary: This is sort of a sequel to Care Bears Movie II. By accident, the carebears discover a longforgotten secret of No Heart's past. Can they use this information to finally make No Heart turn good? Completely rewritten!
1. Forgotten Motive

_I don't have an enormous interest in Care Bears, but this story just begged to be written. It is primarily based upon the Care Bears episodes with No Heart, and Care Bears Movie II. I don't own Care Bears, but all the original characters in this story are mine. _

_I've finally finished a major rewrite of the whole story. Among other things, I substantially altered the ending, and added a character or two that I meant to put in the first draft, but somehow didn't get to. I hope those of you who read the first draft will agree that this new draft is an improvement. All the chapters are basically finished, so I just have to upload them after I go over them one more time._

_Don't copy part or the whole of this story without permission. That said, on with the story._

**Darkest Hearts**

_by Maelstra_

Ch 1: Forgotten Motive

* * *

It was a bright and sunny day; the sunbeams danced across the sapphire sky, and a warm breeze carried the scent of springtime and flowers. Carealot drifted by, far above the human world, its pure white, fluffy clouds supporting a multitude of happy buildings, roofed with white clouds and painted all the colors of the rainbow. Within one such building, a small, blue-furred bear bounced up, giggling, to gaze out a window. 

"Ooh! Look at the birdies!" the cub chirped. "Wow!"

Grams Bear chuckled, but did not move, still leafing through a recipe book. "What kind of birds, Sparkle, dear?"

"Gray ones - lots of them. Oh! What's that?!"

The silver-furred, grandmotherly bear placed her still-open book on the shelf, and went over to look. Beyond the plateau of white clouds, at the blurring edge of the horizon, a dark cloud was forming, apparently pulling itself together out of nothing. It was visibly growing larger as they watched. Several flocks of birds flew swiftly toward Carealot, as if fleeing from the cloud as quickly as they could.

"I'm scared!" The blue cub trembled, hiding behind Grams Bear.

"Don't worry, Sparkle. The other carebears are taking care of it," she reassured, leading her young charge away from the window. "Why don't I tell you a story . . ."

* * *

Meanwhile, Proud Heart Cat yowled at the top of her lungs, "Carebears, carebear cousins! Every bear, get over here!" The tan cat lashed her tail, left to right, for emphasis. She stood on a cloud puff, at the base of the Caring Meter's cloud platform, impatiently waiting for the others to join her.

Puzzled by the outburst, but heeding Proud Heart's urgent tone, the few within the sound of her voice arrived quickly. Cozy Heart Penguin waved a purple wing and asked for all present, "What'S the matter, Proud Heart?" her cute lisp whistling on the "s."

"Look over there," Proud Heart, pointing one paw, directed the others' gaze to the rapidly growing storm cloud churning in the distance, already dwarfing every other cloud in the sky.

"No Heart . . .?" Wish Bear whispered, raising her sea-green paws to cover her mouth.

Tugs Bear, the blue-furred twin, gazed nervously at the storm cloud, then hesitantly spoke up, "I thought all the other bears said No Heart had gone to Prism Falls."

Hugs Bear continued for her twin brother. ". . . And so, everyone but us had to leave at sunrise to go stop No Heart's latest scheme." She lifted a pink paw to scratch her head in confusion.

"Uh oh. I have a bad feeling about this . . ." Good Luck – a spring green bear – stated ominously. He then hurried over to the edge of the cloud to take a closer look at the ominous cloud through the mounted telescope.

"You've got that right." Proud Heart's voice rumbled a little as she spoke. "That cloud is building up right by No Heart's Castle. I'm worried that all the others may have gone off chasing a decoy, while the real No Heart hasn't gone anywhere."

The twin bears gasped and grabbed each other's arms. Wish Bear, rubbing one paw on her forehead, muttered to herself, "I wish I didn't agree with you . . ."

Good Luck Bear rubbed his fuzzy green chin, thinking, still gazing through the telescope. "I can't make out anything beyond the dark clouds – they've completely swallowed up No Heart's castle." He turned around, and met Proud Heart Cat's gaze. "So, what should we do?"

"We can't juSt go off and leave Carealot undefended," Cozy Heart spoke up, flapping both wings in distress. "We Said we'd Stay here to defend Carealot, 'juSt in caSe'."

"But if we don't do something, it may be too late. I'll bet that No Heart thinks all of the carebears will be away at Prism Falls until after he finishes his new spell. If the six of us go now, maybe we could surprise and stop him. Or at least delay him until the others get back." Proud Heart crossed her arms and waited hear the others' thoughts.

"We'll need a lot of luck . . ." Good Luck said.

"I'll wish for us." Wish Bear added.

"Yeah, let's go!" The twin bears jumped up and down with great energy.

"Oh, I gueSS," Cozy Heart reluctantly agreed to Proud Heart, but with a glance at Hugs and Tugs, she added, "But I'm not Sure the cubS Should go."

"Hey!" protested Hugs Bear.

"We're not cubs anymore,"agreed Tugs Bear, determinedly folding his arms.

"Even Tender Heart says we're old enough to help!"

"Please let us go?"

Cozy Heart, faced with double "sad puppy dog" faces, turned to the other adult bears and cousins for help, who each just shrugged.

"I think we'll need all the help we can get." Wish Bear smiled. "Just be very careful," she said specifically to the twins.

"Sure!"

"Hey, I know the perfect thing we could bring! We'll be right back - don't leave without us!" Hugs ran off. Tugs immediately followed, evidently already knowing what his sister meant.

Good Luck Bear glanced at each of the others. "Should we wait for them? Cozy Heart does have a point; they've never been out on a real mission before."

"I think so," Wish Bear declared. "They've obviously been wishing for a chance to prove that they're grown up now."

"But they're not totally grown up yet," Proud Heart purred uncertainly.

"Neither were we the first time we had to face the forces of Hate."

No one wanted to add anything to that, each taking a moment to remember past battles and past dangers. Good Luck abruptly changed to subject back to the present. "I think we'll need two cloudcars. I'll take care of one."

"Good. I'll manage the other," Proud Heart accepted. She and Good Luck began focusing. Cloudcars could be formed from a carebear's "stare" or a carebear cousin's "call," but it took deep concentration for an uninterrupted minute.

Wish Bear and Cozy Heart gazed again at the cloud, which had swollen far beyond the point where it could be deemed merely a rain cloud. Cozy Heart took a turn at the telescope, and studied the cloud itself more closely. "I can See lightning," she declared, "and it lookS pretty SeriouS, WiSh Bear."

"I wish . . . I . . ." she trailed off, deep in thought, and stood silent even though Cozy Heart waited for her to say more.

"We're ready," Good Luck tapped Wish Bear's shoulder to get her attention, startling her.

"Hey!" The twin bears came running back. "We're all set."

Wish Bear looked at her friends, took a deep breath, and smiled weakly. "Well, let's go."

* * *

Two cloudcars flew toward No Heart's Castle as fast as they could without the cars disintegrating back into the clouds they were made from. Violent gusts of wind battered them from every side, so they did not try to fly parallel. Due to the distance between them, conversations between the two cars were impossible, but even those in the same car had little to say to each other. In the car that Proud Heart flew, Hugs and Tugs in the backseat stared at the cloud, as silent from fearful awe as Proud Heart was quiet from grimly focusing on maximizing her speed. Over in the other car, Cozy Heart whistled nervously to herself in the backseat.

"It looks like the Cloud of Uncaring," Wish Bear said to Good Luck with a shudder. "Do you think No Heart has decided to try it again?"

Good Luck Bear thought a moment before he replied, "I don't know. He's never repeated a spell before . . . but he's never come as close to beating us with one, either."

Wish Bear didn't answer. Cozy Heart paused a moment, then continued her musical contribution to the flight. The thunderings soon grew louder, totally drowning out Cozy Heart's shrill whistling.

As the cars neared the castle, the carebears and carebear cousins could barely discern the top few towers of No Heart's Castle – the dense black cloud seemed to be pouring out of them – but the rest of the castle was enveloped entirely in dark mist. The lightning bolts suddenly leapt closer, and Proud Heart and Good Luck had to swerve to dodge the streaks of dangerous energy.

"Hang on!" Proud Heart yelled to her passengers as she threw the car into a sharp loop to avoid a sizzling bolt.

"Oh no!" Good Luck managed to dodge two near strikes, warned by a preceding feeling of tingling static – but it seemed inevitable that the car would be struck by a third.

"I wish . . . !" Wish Bear muttered with all her heart. Her tummy symbol glowed, and sent out two golden beams of light. Each coalesced into a glowing half-sphere, open at the back, around the front of each cloud car. A bolt of lightning smashed straight onto the dome around Good Luck's car, and harmlessly deflected off.

"Wow! Lightning shields! Good job, Wish Bear!" Good Luck gasped in relief, resuming a straight course to the castle.

Proud Heart flew up close beneath Good Luck's car, and shouted over the near-constant rumbling of thunder, "I think we can't sneak in this time! We'll just land wherever looks safe, and go from there!"

"Right!" Good Luck yelled back.

The frequency of the lightning bolts increased as they flew closer. Suddenly, they entered the calm center of the storm, and the entirety of the lower towers and open corridors of No Heart's castle became visible. They could see none of No Heart's shadows outside, but Beastly was obvious, running back and forth in front of a window in an upper room.

"I See a Spot up ahead, where the lightning iSn't Striking!" Cozy Heart declared, leaning over Good Luck's seat to point so that he could see.

"I see it. Cozy Heart, signal Proud Heart that we're going to land!" He started guiding the car gently downwards, ignoring the ricocheting lightning bolts as much as he could. He confided to Wish Bear in a loud shout, "You'd better have more wishes ready, because I think we're going to need all the good luck we can get!"

"I thought that was why we brought you!" she hollared back, weakly grinning.

Good Luck tried to laugh. "Yeah . . ." He landed on the black cloud that acted as the foundation for No Heart's dark and towering lair, then drove the car forward until it rested beneath a large, black balcony. Proud Heart pulled up beside him a moment later, and only then did Wish Bear's shields melt away. Everyone climbed out, and looked around nervously.

"We've only come part way, So don't give up yet. We Still need to do our beSt," Cozy Heart coaxed, speaking loudly.

"Yeah," Wish Bear and Good Luck Bear said. The rest just nodded, not wishing to try to talk over the thunder.

"This way," Proud Heart Cat indicated a doorway with a flick of her tail, rumbling deeply in her throat.

* * *

Squeezing behind dusty furniture and cobweb-bound statues, hugging the cold, stone walls, the group slowly infiltrated their way into the heart of No Heart's castle. Only occasionally did one of the gargoyle-faced shadow servants of No Heart float into sight. The carebears all immediately ducked behind corners or under furniture – but as best as they could tell, the shadows were all too preoccupied with other business, and failed to notice them.

Proud Heart cautiously peered around a corner and studied the long, dark corridor beyond. She cocked her ears to listen, then finally motioned everyone to follow her. The walls in this hallway were lined with unpleasant-looking, stone gargoyles. Hugs cringed when she looked at them: they almost seemed to be alive, watching their every move.

"Grrr! It's not fair!" A shrill voice floated up the corridor, coming from behind the carebears.

Hugs Bear jumped at the sound and stumbled into Proud Heart.

"Oh no! Hurry, everyone – hide!" Good Luck gasped while looking around desperately for cover.

"Why can't I go to Prism Falls and help trick the carebears? If Uncle No Heart would just give me the chance, I'm sure I could trap them all . . ." Shrieky sulked as she stalked down the hallway, stomping with every step and making her green-streaked purple ponytail bounce rhythmically. Then, she stopped suddenly, staring. "What . . . ? Hey!"

The carebears had tried to hide behind the statues, but it was fairly futile as their brightly colored fur stood out sharply against the black walls and gargoyles.

Wish Bear immediately jumped out and started sprinting for the far end of the hall. "Run!"

"Carebears! I'll get you!" Shrieky recovered from her surprise a moment slower than the carebears, but then swiftly reached into a bottomless pocket of her red dress and drew out her magic mirror.

By then, all but Cozy Heart had reached the end of the corridor and disappeared around one of the corners. She had to throw herself around to the left to avoid the magical bolt that Shrieky fired from her mirror – but Cozy Heart made it, and resumed running as fast as she could after Wish Bear and Good Luck. Several more bolts of energy struck the wall at the intersection, knocking bits of the stone loose.

Meanwhile, Hugs, Tugs, and Proud Heart had turned right. They had to take an immediate, sharp left turn to get away from the dangerous magic bolts that blasted the stones behind and beside them. Then, just to the left again, they started down a steep flight of stairs that descended into nearly total darkness. Proud Heart suddenly grabbed the twins and pinned them to the ground, still on the stairs.

"Wha –?" Tugs started to protest, but the carebear cousin shushed him.

"Come back here, you wretched . . . caring freaks!" Shrieky pounded up after them, skidded to a stop, then charged down the staircase. "I'll show you!" She shot bolts from her magical mirror ahead of her, into the darkness.

Hugs and Tugs, having caught on to Proud Heart's plan, silently got back to their feet and followed the tan cat back around to the hallway where they had last seen the others. The hall was empty, except for one of No Heart's horned, sentry shadows that slowly floated across into a solid stone wall and disappeared.

Proud Heart motioned for them to continue forward, and the twins nodded then quietly complied. They climbed a curving flight of stairs at the end of the corridor that spiraled up until they passed through the ceiling and went outside. The thunder storm was still raging, and the dark cloud – though quite black before – seemed to have somehow become darker still, despite the frequent lightning exploding throughout it.

"PSSt! PSSt pSSt!"

Proud Heart and the twin bears instantly recognized Cozy Heart's whistle. She waved to them from further up on the curling flight of stairs. Greatly relieved, they hurried up to join her. After verifying that everyone was still unharmed, they continued on, and ascended the stairs until they reentered the castle. They followed the path of the only hallway available, and shortly found themselves in No Heart's Magic Chamber.

A bottomless chasm opened up in the center of the floor, and only a thin stone bridge led out to a small, floating platform in the center of the pit. Currently, the platform was almost completely obscured by the heavy, black fog which rose from the pit and exited through a hole in the top of the chamber, feeding into the massive thunderstorm outside. All the carebears and carebear cousins stayed in the doorway, studying the vast chamber, but they could see no sign of anyone. Hesitantly, they spread out some, and looked in the holding rooms closest to the archway where they had entered. Finally, a bit confused, Proud Heart Cat motioned the others over. "I don't understand it," she muttered. "It's like he's not here."

"Yes, it is like that, isn't it?" a familiar, sinister voice observed mockingly.

"No Heart!" everyone yelped, and looked up just in time to see a large, metal cage materialize above their heads. It fell, crashing with a harsh clang on the floor. Everyone clung to each other in the center of the thick, black bars.

A very malevolent-looking green and purple wasp – wearing a triangular, silver pendant with a round, red jewel – flew down out of the dense fog. "I expected that not all of the bears would go chasing after my decoy, so I had a trap ready for those who were sure to come here. How 'considerate' of you not to disappoint me." The wasp hovered at the carebears' head level a moment. Then, in an explosion of smoke, it shifted form into a tall, sinister man wearing a deep blue robe, with a red sash hanging over his shoulders and a pointed, purple hood obscuring his face. Red eyes beneath spiky, green eyebrows glowed briefly, then faded as No Heart resumed speaking. "Now I can destroy you at my leisure, then simply wait for the next batch of foolish bears to come to me. Beastly!"

No Heart's irritating assistant, a brown furball with a fighter pilot's hat, arrived unusually promptly, through a side door. "You called, boss?" Beastly asked carelessly.

"Yes. I want you to make sure they don't try anything while I complete my spell. Do you understand?" No Heart's eyes flared red again for emphasis.

"Sure thing." Beastly strutted over near the cage, and waved a key just out of the bears' reach. He snickered, then taunted, "You're trapped in there, and there's nothing you can do about it."

The carebears rolled their eyes, and steeled themselves to ignore the furball's obnoxious antics.

Meanwhile, No Heart stood at the edge of the pit, working on his spell. A large portion of the cloud came to him and coalesced into a glowing green ball between his green hands. He muttered arcane words to the ball, and it flared orange once, twice, then settled into a sickly gray color. With a laugh of triumph, he walked towards the caged carebears, still carrying the magical sphere between his hands. "Look at this, carebears. Only a touch is necessary to drain all the caring from you. And, with each creature it drains, its power will grow. It is my ultimate revenge!" No Heart broke off into maniacal, villainous laughter.

"But, why do you say you want revenge on us?" Hugs Bear interrupted.

No Heart broke off laughing, his eyes glowing, and Cozy Heart tried to warn the bear quiet, but Hugs ignored her and continued, "Sure, we've been thwarting your evil plans for years, but that's just because you attacked us first."

"I think years of being frustrated by you is more than enough reason to destroy you," No Heart growled, but sounded almost amused. "Not that I care about justification, anyway," he added snippily.

"But why did you attack us in the first place?" Hugs persisted, turning on her cute-charm full blast, fluttering her eyelashes and smiling dazzlingly.

No Heart choked and made a noise that sounded rather like "blecch," then walked right up to the cage, holding the gray orb near Hugs Bear. Coldly, he hissed, "I don't remember, and I don't care. I am evil, I am hate, and that is all that matters!! And now – you will be the first one to test my ultimate spell!" He remained standing in place, but slowly spread his hands apart, which made the spell ball slowly float closer to Hugs Bear.

Hugs Bear already had a hand in her jacket pocket. "No thank you!" she hollered as she threw a handful of something right into No Heart's lavender hood.

"What was – ?" Good Luck Bear started to ask.

No Heart's shrieks of pain drowned out any other sound. The evil orb vanished the instant his concentration was broken, and No Heart staggered away from the cage, clutching at his cowl. "You – horrible – creature!" He screamed indistinctly and collapsed to kneeling, writhing. Acrid, white smoke starting seeping out from under the purple hood.

"B-boss? Uh, boss? . . . What should I do?" Beastly walked in indecisive circles, waving his arms.

"Hey, Beastly! Come here," Tugs Bear whispered loudly.

"Huh?" Beastly stopped walking. "Hey, you're just trying to trick me into giving you the key! Well it won't work. I'm much too smart to fall for a trick like that." Beastly snickered derisively.

"No, really. I just want to show you something," Tugs assured the furball with an innocent smile.

"Show me what?" Beastly cautiously stepped closer to the back of the cage, to where he could easily see Tugs.

"Hugs Bear . . . what did you do to No Heart?" Wish Bear finally asked, unable to take her eyes away from the smoking, cursing arch-villain.

"I . . . I don't know," Hugs answered, equally surprised. "I just used some caring crystals on him . . ."

"Caring crystals, on a person as uncaring as No Heart –" Proud Heart folded her arms and flicked her tail authoritatively. "That would definitely have bad side-effects for him."

By then, No Heart could barely hold his body off the ground with his arms, and his vision was totally obscured by the smoke pouring out from within his hood. His whole body felt as though it were dissolving, and his soul were burning. The caring crystals, an antithesis to his existence, were sapping his energy, and possibly even draining his very being.

No Heart twisted his involuntary shouts of pain into a growl of rage, and he bent his entire will to fighting the abomination that was destroying him. His will of evil, grown powerful over the years, was nearly not enough to combat the crystals – but slowly it drove the despised energy away. As the power of the caring crystals reluctantly receded, it left deep gouges in the darkness of No Heart's mind, returning memories that No Heart had long ago wished forgotten. The memories paraded through his head, and he shoved most back into forgetfulness in disgust; but a handful he held onto, some part of him unwilling to throw them away. One in particular galvanized his trembling soul into motion.

Pure rage burned within his heart, fueled by all the rediscovered memories, as he drew on his deepest magic to return some of his strength. The acidic smoke ceased flowing from his hood; he could again see the floor and his trembling, green-gloved hands. "You wish to know why I fight you, carebears?" he rasped, his voice now painfully hoarse. "I will tell you why: you destroyed my twin brother! I swore on that day that I would hunt you down, even to the ends of the world, to get my revenge. And, I assure you, I will yet have my revenge!" With supreme effort, No Heart pushed off the ground, and wobbled to hover upright again.

"Oh, boss, you don't look too good. Maybe you should lie down and rest a while. I could make you a nice glass of potion - just perfect for an upset tummy," Beastly smiled, sparkling all over. The cage beside him was empty, and all the carebears stood behind him, eyes focused solely on No Heart, uniformly startled by No Heart's sudden proclamation.

"What! More accursed caring crystals! I'll get you! I swear I'll – !" No Heart stumbled and fell as he tried to float menacingly toward the carebears.

"Here, boss, let me give you a hand!" Beastly wandered over and cheerfully offered a helping hand to No Heart, which the evil man swatted away in disgust.

"What did he mean – ?" Tugs started to ask as Proud Heart nudged him toward the exit.

"No time for that now!" Cozy Heart interrupted, simultaneously hurrying Hugs along.

"I agree," said Good Luck, already at the doorway. "This may be our only chance to escape."

The carebears fled from the room, but Wish Bear took one last backward glance before leaving. "I wish I knew what really just happened," she muttered, then turned and ran after her friends.


	2. The Missing Twin

_This is the new chapter two from my recent, total rewrite._

_Don't copy part or the whole of this story without permission._

_Have a nice day. :)_

**Darkest Hearts**

_by Maelstra_

Ch 2: The Missing Twin

* * *

"Dark Heart? But why would you want to find Dark Heart?" True Heart Bear asked, taken aback by such an unexpected question. 

"To prove to No Heart that the carebears didn't really destroy his twin," Tugs answered excitedly.

Hugs, Tugs, and the others that had braved the dangers of No Heart's castle had arrived back in Carealot long before the main group of carebears had returned from chasing No Heart's sneaky decoy. While passing the time, and anxiously awaiting the others' return, the twin bears brainstormed ideas about what they could do about No Heart. The night came, and the weary bears fell asleep before the other bears returned.

Early next morning, however, they immediately sought out True Heart, the eldest carebear. They found her talking to Tender Heart, an easy-tempered and reliable brown bear, in front of the Hall of Hearts. Hugs and Tugs, unable to contain their excitement, burst up and interrupted the conversation and as rapidly as possible presented their proposal.

True Heart sleepily rubbed her forehead, as though massaging a headache, and sighed. "Hugs, Tugs, I am glad you would want to help No Heart. But . . . there are a couple of things I don't think you have considered."

"What do you mean?" Tugs glanced at Hugs, puzzled.

"I think I know," Tender Heart glanced at True Heart sympathetically, patted her gently on the shoulder, then looked back at the cubs. "First of all is the question of whether you can really believe No Heart."

"But he really did say he was fighting us because we destroyed his twin. I heard him," Hugs argued, shaking a pink paw in emphasis.

"I'm not questioning that," True Heart countered, beginning to pace slowly, her hands clasped behind her back. "My point is No Heart has been known to lie to us before. Even though you used caring crystals on him, we still have no way of knowing if he was telling the truth."

"Why do you think Dark Heart was No Heart's twin, anyway?" Tender Heart asked the sibling bears, quite curious. "The carebears defeated Dark Heart long before you two were even born."

"Grams Bear told us all the stories about him. She always said he originally was a powerful being, like No Heart," Hugs explained.

"Besides, their names kind of sound the same," said Tugs Bear.

"And they were both evil," added Hugs.

"And they both tried to destroy the carebears."

"And they could both change themselves into animals and stuff."

Tender Heart Bear considered this, rubbing his fuzzy chin. "I suppose that makes sense. Especially since they both could change their forms – that is a fairly unique power. I think I've only heard of one or two other creatures who could change shape like that . . ."

"But, even if this is true," True Heart gently interrupted, her expression changing to deeper seriousness. "There is still the second item you need to consider." She paused, and everyone waited for her to continue. "Tender Heart, do you remember how we defeated Dark Heart?"

"No, I don't." He shrugged. "I guess I was still too young when it happened. All I remember about Dark Heart was that he tried to pose as a Caring Meter repairman."

True Heart nodded. "Well, you recall that Dark Heart managed to capture all the carebear cubs, with the reluctant help of a girl named Christy. Then, when things looked hopeless, Christy turned against Dark Heart to try to protect the carebears. Dark Heart, for all his evilness, did not want to sacrifice Christy. To save that girl, he was willing to give up all his evil and uncaring power. In the end, Christy was alright, and Dark Heart became an ordinary human. When I went back to see them at camp once, another year, I could see that they had become the best of friends." Again, True Heart paused.

"But . . . ?" Tender Heart prompted.

"But," True Heart continued after a deep sigh, "you need to remember that this happened a long time ago. Humans don't age like we do. Dark Heart might not be alive anymore, and in which case, we truly would be at least partially responsible for his death."

Hugs and Tugs looked at True Heart, then at each other, considering this new information. Then they glanced at Tender Heart, eyes wide with unvoiced questions.

"I didn't think of that," Tender Heart admitted. He rubbed his ear in thought. "How long has it been since we last saw Dark Heart, anyway?"

True Heart folded her arms in front of her. "I haven't kept track, exactly," she said. "But I'm fairly sure it's been well more than fifty years."

"So, Dark Heart might still be alive," Tugs noted, his eyes brightening with a glimmer of hope.

"He'd just be really old," Hugs elaborated, trying then to imagine what a 70 or so year-old Dark Heart might look like.

"Hmm," Tender Heart also considered that notion. "True Heart, do you think it would be worth a try to look for Dark Heart?"

The elder carebear answered slowly, "It is a small chance . . . but a small chance does not mean we should not try at all." She paced a moment, thinking silently. "Alright – we'll give it a try. Tender Heart, I think you'd better stay here, in case No Heart tries another trick while I'm gone. I'll ask Noble Heart to come with me, since he would remember Dark Heart as well as I."

"Please, please, can we come with you?" the twin bears begged together.

"Well, I don't know why you shouldn't. This trip shouldn't be dangerous, and besides that, this was your idea in the first place."

"Yay!"

"Just don't get your hopes too high," True Heart cautioned the exuberant bears. "I don't know what we'll find on Earth. Honestly, I'm not even sure where to start looking, except at the site of the old summer camp."

Tender Heart was quick to reassure, "Don't worry. I'm sure you'll find something. Maybe the summer camp will give you a lead to somewhere else." He smiled brightly.

"Thank you, Tender Heart." She smiled slightly in return, rubbed a paw across her forehead, then turned to face the cubs. "Now, let's go find Noble Heart, and then we'll be on our way."

* * *

True Heart drove the cloud car down toward an overgrown forest that hugged itself tightly about a small mountain and extended around the entire shoreline of a shimmering, green lake. She stopped the vehicle midair, considering. "I think this is it," she concluded at last, sounding fairly certain.

Barely visible between the trees, an old road twisted along from the short mountain over to the lake. Near the lake and the road stood a few ash-brown buildings, relics of a very old summer camp.

"I agree," Noble Heart, the violet horse carebear cousin, said firmly. "I remember the lake, and the positioning of the cabins."

"Are there any kids down there right now?" Hugs asked as she and her brother craned over the sides of the backseat to look downward.

All listened a moment. "It seems pretty quiet. Maybe not," Noble Heart said.

The cloud car gently floated down and landed beside the largest building, the camp's office cabin. All four caring creatures hopped out, and then True Heart let the car dissolve back into mist. Up close, the main building looked very old, and greatly in need of a new paint job. The only sounds around them were the chirps of birds and buzzing of bugs – none of the laughing and shouting that would mean children at play.

Still determined, True Heart opened the main door and walked inside, the others trailing quietly after. Within, the building looked a little less neglected, despite the pamphlets and papers strewn across all the benches and the floor. The care bears and care bear cousin walked toward the only visible light source, and shortly found themselves in a very cluttered, but occupied, office. "Where's it gone to? I know I just saw it . . ." a voice came from under a document-buried desk. Sounds of rustling papers accompanied the voice. "Aha! Here it is!" A cheerful old man, resembling a scarecrow with thinned gray hair and thick-rimmed glasses, straightened up, holding a wrinkled page in his hand.

"Uh, excuse us, sir . . ." True Heart tried to politely get the man's attention. She very seldom spoke to adult humans, so she hesitated, not wishing to either frighten the man or to seem rude.

The man did not seem to notice them, instead muttering about finding something else, so Noble Heart said more loudly, "Excuse us!"

"Eh?" The old man looked around in surprise, then finally noticed the quartet of creatures. "Hey. Nice to have visitors. What kind of visitors are you, anyway?" He talked very loudly, as if a bit hard of hearing, and he squinted at them in a puzzled manner – but did not appear afraid.

"We're carebears - and a carebear cousin," True Heart said brightly, speaking more loudly and carefully enunciating. "We were hoping you could help us."

He nodded to himself, and smiled toothily. "Carebears? Well, it's very fine to have you. What brings you to Camp Pinnehawk?" the old man inquired amiably while cautiously collapsing down into his desk chair.

"We were hoping to find some information about a boy who came to this camp, about fifty years ago," True Heart said, getting right to business.

"His name was Dark Heart," Noble Heart added. He flicked his tail unconsciously.

"Fifty years? Oh, I'm sorry . . . I don't think we've kept the records that far back. This camp has changed ownership a time or two, besides. I'm lucky to have anything that predates the year when I purchased this place . . ." he trailed off slowly, looking into space, rather than at the disappointed faces of the carebears.

"What should we do?" Hugs asked True Heart and Noble Heart in a quiet hiss.

"Sh. We should still be polite," Noble Heart whispered back.

The old man evidently did not hear this exchange, suddenly continuing talking as though he had never stopped. "I stayed at this camp a few summers myself, a long time ago. Those were the greatest days: rowing canoes, hiking, singing camp songs . . ."

"Um-hm." The carebears smiled and nodded.

He laughed. "They called me 'Mud-eye Mike,' on account of how I tripped spectacularly while playing baseball on a really rainy day. But I didn't mind it – well, not really. It was just the old gang, after all, all of us that came back to the camp year after year."

The carebears smiled and nodded some more. True Heart tried to figure out a polite way to extract themselves from old Mike's reminiscences.

"Yes, it was me, John and Dawn, and Mary, Pete, Christy, and Darren . . ." the old man trailed off again.

After a moment of Mike's silence, True Heart started to say, "Thank you anyway, Mike, but . . ."

Mike spoke up abruptly again. "Darren . . . I'd forgotten, but he had the nickname 'Dark Heart.' I always thought it was a strange name, but he said he didn't mind. Most of us called him Darren, but Christy always called him Dark Heart for some reason."

"Christy? Dark Heart?" True Heart could not believe their luck. "Yes! Dark – uh, Darren is the one we were looking for! Do you remember anything else about him?"

Mike went quiet again, thinking deeply. "I think he was living in an orphanage at the time, but he still came to camp every year, because of Christy. They were absolutely inseparable best friends." Mike frowned.

"Yes? What else?" Noble Heart prompted, trying not to sound too impatient, but nonetheless coming closer and planting both hands on the edge of the desk. "Please, go on!"

"Well, Christy got too old to come to the camp anymore, but Darren came again that next year anyway. We had all kinds of trouble: half the camp got sick; some little kids wandered off and got lost – luckily Darren found them; and on top of all that, that year we had warnings that we had bears in the forest. Still, everything was alright by the end, and we had a good time overall.

"Then, once everything was all packed up, and kids were starting to get on the buses to go home, someone found something of Darren's and went looking for him to give it to him. But nobody could find him. A couple of buses had already left by then, so we assumed he'd just gotten on one of those and had already gone home. But, next year at camp – my last year – he wasn't here, and when I asked, the counselors told me that apparently he'd never gone back to the orphanage . . ."

"He just disappeared?!" True Heart gasped in surprise.

Mike nodded. "Yep. Nobody ever figured it out. It was quite a big deal at camp that year. Some of the kids really got into playing detectives and all. You know, I'd forgotten about that time Billy Mez kept trying to borrow my magnifying glass . . ."

"Do you know the address of the orphanage?" Noble Heart interrupted, his tone finally reflecting some impatience with Mike's rambling.

Mike stopped and blinked. "I might have it . . . somewhere in here . . ."

Hugs and Tugs looked distressed at the thought of standing around while Mike tried to find a single page in his ocean of papers. True Heart noticed this, and whispered to them, "You two can go outside and play. Noble Heart and I will wait in here."

"We're too old to 'go play' . . ." Tugs started to say, but Hugs grabbed his arm and dragged him out the door.

"Don't complain," she said, once they were safely outside in the revitalizing sunshine. "You didn't want to wait anymore, either."

"Yeah," Tugs reluctantly admitted. "They all think we're still cubs, though."

"Not all of them," Hugs countered. "Besides, if you haven't noticed, True Heart still treats Tender Heart like a cub sometimes."

Tugs grinned. "I'd forgotten. That was really funny when she caught him eating cookie dough . . ."

Hugs giggled at the memory. "Oh, and poor Grumpy Bear got caught, too . . ."

The twin cubs laughed, releasing their tension from boredom. After a moment, Hugs flopped down on a grassy hill, looking up to the sky. "It's so peaceful here. I can see why the humans would like it so much. Just listen to those birds . . ." She ran her pink, fuzzy hands through the soft, young grass.

Tugs smiled impishly, crossing his arms. "You can listen to the birds if you like, but I'm going to explore the forest."

Hugs rolled over to face her blue-furred twin, and laughed. "Whatever you want, Tugs, but just don't go too far. What if you get lost? True Heart and Noble Heart will be upset . . ."

"Don't worry," Tugs laughed. "I won't get lost."

Ten minutes later, he had.

"Great. Paths, paths everywhere. One of these must lead back to the main building," he muttered. Picking one packed-dirt path at random, he set off again, trekking through the pleasant, oak and evergreen forest. A gentle wind made the leaves rustle – a very soothing sound – and Tugs had to admit that he was not really worried. The forest was nice, the temperature perfect, and in the worst case, he could always send up a tummy-symbol flare to show the others where he was. He thought it was much too soon to resort to that, however, so he continued walking.

A few birds flitted past, and Tugs happily greeted all of them, even imitating some of their calls. A ways off the path, past a few trees, he thought he could see the roof of some building. "What's that?" he asked out loud, curious. He went a few steps closer, slowly navigating his way around boney bushes and dry leaves. Suddenly, a bright red cardinal swooped down and landed directly in front of him. "Hello, there," Tugs greeted the bird as politely as he had the others. To not disturb the bird, he walked a wide arc around it, leaving the trail and then returning and continuing toward the mysterious building.

The bird leapt into the air, swooped around, and landed in front of him again, resting lightly on an old, rotten branch. Surprised, Tugs asked, "Do you want to play? I was just trying to get a look at that roof over there . . ." He pointed at the shingle-covered something, about ten feet beyond him. The path ahead narrowed sharply, choked by large bushes, then disappeared completely under dead wood and leaves.

The bird just watched him, jerkily turning its head, its beady eyes looking right into his.

Tugs shrugged, then tried to go around the bird again. Suddenly, it began chirping loudly, which so startled Tugs that he pulled back the foot he had been about to place on a twig-covered section of the path. "What is it?" Tugs asked the bird, puzzled by its strange behavior.

The bird just chirped once, more loudly.

Shaking his head, Tugs again went to take another step.

"Don't step there!"

Tugs pulled back his foot and took another full step backwards. "Who said that?" he looked around wildly, then focused on the cardinal. "Did you . . .?"

The bird took flight, flew over to where Tugs had nearly stepped, and landed. The twigs sank down under the bird's tiny weight. Flapping fiercely, the bird took off again, and landed nearer Tugs, on safer ground. "It won't even hold my weight," the bird said. "It's really part of a ledge, and you might have gotten badly hurt if you'd fallen through."

"Oh." Tugs could not recall ever meeting a talking bird before. The notion confused him, but he recalled that in most of the stories Grams Bear had told, animals could talk all the time. Perhaps it was not so unusual after all. At the least, though, even if he did not entirely understand the situation, he should still be polite. "Thanks for stopping me."

"You're welcome. I'm sorry for startling you."

"It's alright." Tugs considered something. He then asked, "I don't want to impose on you, but do you know the way back to the camp buildings?"

"Sure!" The cardinal flitted up and neatly landed on Tugs's shoulder. "I'd be glad to guide you back . . ."

* * *

With the cardinal's directions, Tugs promptly returned to the rundown main office. The cardinal remained perched on his shoulder the entire time, riding calmly.

"There you are!" Hugs, now holding a handful of wildflowers, ran over and greeted him brusquely. "I see you found a friend," she acknowledged the cardinal. "I was wondering if you'd gotten lost."

"Well . . ." Tugs trailed off, his eyes darting to the cabin instead of meeting his sister's eyes. Just then, Noble Heart and True Heart emerged from the building. "I wonder if they found anything," he quickly changed the subject.

Hugs Bear shrugged, and both she and Tugs walked over toward the other two. "Any luck?" Hugs asked.

Resignedly, Noble Heart shook his head. "No. After a few minutes, Old Mike remembered that the orphanage had closed a number of years ago. He offered to keep looking for the address anyway, but we told him not to bother. They probably sold the building years ago, and would have moved the orphanage's records somewhere else, anyway."

"I'm sorry, Hugs and Tugs," True Heart sighed. "We tried everything we could think of, and that's what's important, but I think we're out of clues. I don't think we're going to be able to find Dark Heart now."

The carebear twins looked disappointed. "I guess we'll go home now," Tugs said dully.

Gracefully, the cardinal swooped off of Tugs's shoulder, and landed on the ground beside him. It cocked its head, and eyed True Heart and Noble Heart. "Wait a minute - did you say you're looking for Dark Heart?"

"Yeah," Tugs answered, turning his head to look at the bird at his feet.

"What?! A talking bird?" True Heart looked surprised.

Within the space of an eyeblink, the cardinal vanished in a wisp of red smoke. In its place stood a ten year-old boy with blazing orange hair and blue eyes, wearing a red running suit. "I'm sorry about the difficulties you've had. What can I do for you?" he asked politely.

"Dark Heart! But . . . ! I thought you turned human and lost all your powers!" Noble Heart exclaimed.

"So did I," Dark Heart said ruefully. "It took me a while to realize I hadn't."

"Please, tell us what happened," True Heart requested.

Dark Heart folded his arms. "Well, after camp that first time, I had nowhere to go, so Christy helped me get set up at Forest Rim Orphanage. After that, Christy's family paid for me to come back to camp each summer. A few years passed, and some people commented that I didn't seem to age, but even that didn't worry me yet.

"That last year at camp, the first time Christy didn't come too, was when I realized I still wasn't totally human. A bear was roaming around in the forest, and we had all been warned about it, but some other campers and I ran into it anyway. I told the others to run back to camp while I distracted it, and then – just by reflex, I changed into a dragon, and chased the bear away." He paused a moment. "Fortunately, no one saw me transform, but I finally realized . . . I didn't age, I could still change my shape . . . it seemed the only thing I had really lost was my dark powers – because I didn't want to use them anymore."

"Oh . . ." True Heart looked steadfastly at the pseudo-boy with sympathetic eyes.

Dark Heart glanced away. "I decided that I couldn't keep pretending to be human, so after camp ended, I went back to the forest and stayed there. Ever since then, I've helped the campers out, while in some animal form, either leading lost campers back to their cabins or chasing dangerous animals away."

After a respectful pause, Noble Heart said, "I'm very proud of you, Dark Heart. That's a wonderful thing to do."

He smiled shyly. "Thank you. I enjoy watching the kids out at play, and it gives me something to do with my apparent immortality."

True Heart smiled widely. "I know just what you mean." She, too, had watched over and cared for many generations of children. "But first, I must apologize that none of us carebears ever came back to check on you again."

"Oh, that's alright. I know you have the whole world to look after; you can't keep track of everybody."

"Nevertheless, I'm sorry about it." True Heart glanced back at Noble Heart, who motioned for her to continue. "Now, about what we were hoping to ask you: do you have a twin brother named No Heart?"

"No Heart?" Dark Heart looked thoroughly confused. "I don't recall the name. And, you think he's my twin?"

"Well, we were hoping," Hugs said.

"Since No Heart told us he vowed revenge on the carebears because they destroyed his twin brother, we thought maybe we could reason with No Heart by proving the carebears didn't," Tugs continued.

"So, you seemed the most likely choice, since you two have similar names, you both tried to destroy the carebears, and you both can change into different animals," Hugs added.

"I'm sorry, Dark Heart," Noble Heart stopped the twin bears with a sharp glance. "They really got their hopes up about this . . ."

Dark Heart thought deeply, tapping a finger on his chin. "Actually, I don't remember anything before I first came to this camp. I know I hunted the carebears before that . . . but I can't recall any details. It seems that turning good erased most of my memories." He considered the notion again. "A twin brother, hmm? I suppose I could have forgotten that as well. Perhaps, if I saw this . . . 'No Heart,' it might jog my memory. Would it be possible for you to take me to him?"

Noble Heart and True Heart looked at each other, silently looking for signs of approval. True Heart commented, "It's always dangerous to sneak into No Heart's castle."

"But if we only need to get a look at No Heart, it shouldn't be that much trouble," the horse carebear cousin retorted. "I say we do it."

"Yes!" both Hugs and Tugs agreed.

"Alright," True Heart conceded a bit hesitantly. "But shouldn't we stop back at Carealot first? The other carebears and carebear cousins should be informed of what we're going to do."

"But we're just going to take a look!" Tugs was excited, and did not want any delays.

"The shortest way back to Carealot from here passes pretty close to No Heart's Castle . . ." Hugs wheedled.

"Well . . ." True Heart still hesitated. She glanced over at Noble Heart again.

He smiled widely, showing all his teeth, and said, "We'd have the advantage of surprise – No Heart would never expect us to come back so soon . . ."

"Well . . . okay." To be honest, True Heart was already getting caught up in the others' exuberance. What if this did work, after all? Maybe No Heart would finally consent to leave the carebears alone?

"Okay! Here we go!" Noble Heart pumped his hand in victory, then focused to create a cloud car.

"One cloud car is going to be pretty crowded with five people," Hugs observed out loud with a smile.

True Heart looked to Dark Heart again. A large, red bird, more like a hawk now than a cardinal, rested where Dark Heart had just stood. "If you don't mind, I rather enjoy flying," he said cheerfully. "If you'll just lead the way, I'm sure I will have no trouble keeping up."

"Alright, is everyone ready?" Noble Heart asked, already hopping into the cloud car.

True Heart nodded with determination. "Let's go pay No Heart a visit."


	3. Shrieky's Plan

_Happy Holidays, everyone! I hoped to get this uploaded much sooner, but things have been crazy. You know how that goes, I'm sure. Anyway, this chapter is almost entirely new material, so I'd love to know what you think of it._

_Don't copy part or the whole of this story without permission. All characters that did not appear in the original shows or movies are mine._

_Have a Happy New Year!_

**Darkest Hearts**

_by Maelstra_

Ch 3: Shrieky's Plan

* * *

Noble Heart drove at high speed, and the twisted spires of No Heart's castle soon came into their view. The enormous, dangerous cloud from the evil warlock's last spell had by now mostly dissipated, although it had left a remnant like a sticky fog that wrapped around the castle like cobwebs. Dark Heart, in hawk form, easily kept pace with the cloud car. He sometimes soared above, and sometimes below the car, catching the air currents as they came, but also just reveling in the sensation of flying. 

"Pedal faster, furball!"

Every carebears's head suddenly tilted upward to look toward the source of that shrill voice.

"But I'm already peddling as fast as I can," Beastly groaned as he tried to increase the speed of his squeaky bicycle-copter. A large, wooden barrel dangled underneath the copter by a rope, and the added weight seemed to be making the vehicle sluggish.

Shrieky was doing nothing but lounging in the attached sidecar. "I don't care – no excuses!"

"Oh . . . Yes, Shrieky."

True Heart breathed a sigh of relief that the evil duo passed by overhead without noticing them. "I wonder what they're up to. Do you think we should follow them, Noble Heart?"

"Hm." He stopped the car still in midair so he could glance back again at the retreating bike-copter. "They're certainly up to no good . . . but I told Tender Heart and the others to all be on guard . . ."

"Is everything alright?" Dark Heart the red hawk landed on the hood of the cloud car. "Who are they?"

"Since we're already here, I think we should go ahead with our plan," Noble Heart said to True Heart.

She nodded and told the hawk, "Don't worry, Dark Heart – the other carebears should be able to handle Shrieky and Beastly."

"Yeah – the carebears have beaten those two tons of times," Hugs reassured brightly.

Tugs chimed in, "Besides that, their plans almost never work."

"Okay . . . if you say so." Dark Heart glanced over at the macabre castle, shuddered, then started nervously preening his feathers. Quietly, he asked, "Is that where we're going?"

"Don't worry!" Noble Heart smiled. "It's not half so creepy once you've been in there a few dozen times!"

"It's really not any worse than your own lair was," True Heart added.

Dark Heart glanced briefly at the castle again, flashed in a cloud of red smoke, and changed into a tiny, crimson turtle. He immediately pulled his head and appendages inside. "Was I really that bad?" his trembling voice came from within the shell. "I can't seem to remember . . ."

"It'll be alright," True Heart reassured, leaning around the windshield to scoop up the palm-sized turtle and bring him inside the car. "It's okay, Dark Heart – we don't have to go in there if you don't want to – we can just go back to Carealot for now, and then maybe come back again later . . ."

"No . . ." his voice tremored slightly, but then the turtle disappeared in a puff of smoke and became a red heron hovering over the car. "I'm sorry . . . something came over me for a minute there. I was probably just reacting to a subconscious memory of the dark times when I was still evil." Dark Heart's voice had regained confidence, and his fear seemed to be gone. "Let's go find No Heart."

"Okay." Noble Heart put the car in gear again and drove onward. "We'll probably find him in one of the top towers."

They landed on the highest balcony they could find and quietly crept inside. The black, stone hallways echoed with the sound of their footsteps. Tendrils of mist floated close to the ceiling, swirling in irregular patterns. Dark Heart decided to resume his human form; it was familiar and comfortable, and now that he was within the castle, he needed all the reassurance he could get. The sickening feeling of foreboding that had struck him before was steadily returning.

"Does that cloud have eyes?" Tugs asked, pointing at the fog near the ceiling.

Everyone looked up. True Heart gasped and backed into the wall. "Shadows!"

One of the shadows winked evilly at her, then loudly crooned an alarm. It and dozens of other gray wraiths dropped down from the ceiling and wrapped themselves around the intruders.

Hugs shrieked, "Agh! I can't move! Tugs!"

"I'm stuck, too!" The blue-furred twin squirmed futilely in the shadows' icy grasp.

"On the count of three, stare!" True Heart gasped. "One . . . two . . . three!"

Hugs, Tugs, and True Heart stared, and Noble Heart called. The shadows strongly disliked being blasted with the good energy and backed off, even releasing Dark Heart. All of the carebears sprawled in the middle of the floor, panting heavily.

"What is the meaning of this disturbance?!" a voice thundered. The shadows collectively 'eeped' and melded into the walls.

Dark Heart looked up at the approaching figure and instantly guessed him to be No Heart. The blue-robed, evil lord towered over the pseudo-human and carebears, and the very air around him seemed to crackle with dark energy. He clenched and flexed his green, taloned hands, as though planning to personally strangle all his intruders. "Foolish bears. Have you come to seek your demise? I will be pleased to grant it!" Then No Heart finally seemed to notice Dark Heart. "And who are you?" he demanded, his red eyes under hairy green brows flaring a brilliant scarlet. The aura of evil magic around him perceptibly thickened as he began a spell. "No matter. I'll just destroy you with the others!"

Dark Heart froze, unable to get a word out, so Noble Heart stepped forward with all the bravery he could muster. "No Heart, listen to us! We're here because we think we've found your brother!"

"You . . . what . . . ?" The fire went out of No Heart's eyes, and he just stared blankly at Noble Heart for a moment. Then, he glanced down at Dark Heart again, and the blaze returned, redoubled. "You . . . you claim that this is my brother?! How dare you!! You think to trick me with one of your worthless human 'friends'?!" No Heart growled in fury and hurled a green-black spell ball that would have struck Dark Heart if the boy had not scuttled backward out of the way just in time.

No Heart started gathering power for another blast, but then suddenly faltered. The spell ball slipped from his hands and dissolved into the floor with a hiss, and No Heart doubled over, coughing convulsively.

"He must still be weakened from our last encounter!" True Heart whispered to the others. "We should get out while we have the chance!"

Dark Heart crept back forward, his paralysis of fear at last broken. He eyed the blue-robed, evil lord with great curiosity. "Are you alright?" he asked.

"Am I what?! How dare you!" No Heart got his coughing under control and tried to look intimidating again, but he had already lost a lot of his earlier advantage. "I am Lord No Heart! You will all cower before me!" He gave up on his previous spell, and instead cast a weaker one that ricocheted waves of crimson lightning around the hall.

True Heart grabbed Dark Heart's arm and pulled him back. "This isn't working! Come on! Let's get out of here!"

"But – !"

"Retreat!" Noble Heart affirmed, then sent a burst of caring energy from his 'call' at No Heart. The symbol of light struck the evil being directly and momentarily disrupted his spell casting.

"Come on – !"

"– Let's go!" Hugs and Tugs each took one of Dark Heart's hands and pulled him down the hall. Dark Heart tried to stop again at the end of the hallway to get another look at No Heart, but Noble Heart gave him a firm push and hurried him on his way. They made it outside onto the balcony just as the ceiling started collapsing from the shockwave of another of No Heart's spells. The carebears piled into their cloudcar as quickly as they could manage, and Dark Heart turned back into a hawk. Noble Heart drove off as fast as their cloudcar could fly, and Dark Heart followed at a distance.

The first few minutes of their flight were the tensest, but No Heart made no attempt to pursue them. At last, Noble Heart deemed them safe enough, and he slowed back down to a more reasonable speed. Dark Heart soared alone a minute longer, then finally swooped down to perch on the edge of the backseat, beside Hugs and Tugs. He sighed once, forlornly.

The cubs were glum, too. "All that effort, and it didn't work out," Tugs moped.

True Heart turned around in her seat and reassured the cubs, "We tried, and you know that's really what's most important." She gave Dark Heart a sad smile. "I'm truly sorry, Dark Heart . . . but we were just guessing, after all."

"But I've been thinking . . . maybe the problem is me."

"What do you mean?" Hugs Bear scratched her pink ear, confused. "You didn't do anything wrong."

"No, but . . ." Dark Heart ruffled his feathers and paced around in a tight circle. "How can I explain . . . ? Look – snake. Wolf." As he spoke the word, he changed in a poof of red smoke into a red-colored copy of that animal. "Lemur. Mouse. Seal. Human." With each word, he changed again, until on the last, he returned to his orange-haired, blue-eyed form. He climbed down into the backseat between the twins so his weight would not thrown the car off balance. "You see? Human is just another shape I can become. I've forgotten everything I knew before I met you carebears – I don't even remember what I really am."

"Oh!" Tugs caught on. "So, you think maybe No Heart didn't recognize you –"

"– Because I'm in the wrong form. Yes." Dark Heart brought his knees up to his chest and wrapped his arms around them. "No Heart still might be my twin – so, we didn't really learn anything from this trip after all . . ."

True Heart looked like she wanted to assure Dark Heart he had learned something – but after a moment, she closed her mouth, unable to think of anything to say. "Never mind, Dark Heart. Did the trip jog any of your memories?"

"Not really," Dark Heart said slowly. He poofed into a cardinal, and fluttered up to perch on the back of True Heart's seat. "I don't think I've ever been in that castle before . . . but I did feel like maybe I used to live somewhere similar."

"That could be an important clue to your past," Noble Heart grunted as he steered them through the edges of a cloudfield that marked the boundaries of Carealot.

"Maybe." Dark Heart did not sound convinced.

True Heart squinted ahead. "Is that Tender Heart waiting for us?"

Noble Heart revved the engine and surged ahead to the landing cloud. Dark Heart meanwhile took off again and came to his own landing near the trio of carebears who were waiting for the others.

Tender Heart rushed forward before the others could even exit the car. "True Heart? Noble Heart! Thank goodness you're back! We have a big problem!"

"We saw Shrieky and Beastly flying this way . . ." Noble Heart began, trying to anticipate what Tender Heart was going to say.

The pink bear, Cheer, interrupted anxiously, "Several little stars just flew back to tell us they saw Beastly and Shrieky heading straight for Prism Falls!"

True Heart gasped. "The barrel . . ."

Noble Heart instantly understood. "Tell everyone to meet in the Hall of Hearts, on the double!"

"A meeting?" Tugs groaned.

"Do we have to go?" Hugs asked.

"Yes, cubs," True Heart firmly. "You too, please, Dark Heart."

He nodded, then poofed back into human form. "But what's the trouble? You weren't so worried before."

"Well, you see . . . that's because . . ."

* * *

". . . the water from Prism Falls has strong emotional and caring properties, and is closely connected to both memories and dreams. So, if No Heart were to get his hands on a large amount, he could use it in his spells either to afflict all the people of Earth with nightmares, or else to drain all the humans' feelings and caring away while they sleep." True Heart stood as she addressed the company present in the Hall of Hearts. All the carebears and carebear cousins were seated around an enormous, heart-shaped table. They had brought in an extra stool to accommodate Dark Heart, and had placed him between Bright Heart Raccoon and Treat Heart Pig.

"We don't have a moment to lose!" Tender Heart declared. "We need a few volunteers to go stop them from carrying off any of that water."

"I'll go!" Swift Heart Rabbit sprang up almost immediately. "I scoured that valley so many times when No Heart decoyed us there that now I know it like the back of my paw."

"Me too, sports fans!" Champ, a tan bear, bounded over to stand beside the blue rabbit.

"I-I'd like to go, too." Dark Heart slowly raised his hand, and all the carebears turned to regard him with big smiles. "I owe you all so much – I want to do something to help you out."

"Oh, there's no need for that!" Bright Heart and half a dozen other carebears nearby reassured him.

"Well, and also . . ." Dark Heart admitted, "You said the water can show memories. I'm hoping that maybe I can find something there to help me figure out what I really am . . . and whether I really am No Heart's lost twin brother."

"Good idea," Bright Heart approved. Then, the purple raccoon stood as well. "If you don't mind, I would like to accompany you, Dark Heart."

"Thank you," Dark Heart smiled hesitantly.

"Don't mention it!" Bright Heart grinned. "Friends always stick together!"

"Yeah! And, with the five of us," Champ Bear said enthusiastically, "this'll be a cinch!"

* * *

"Find anything yet?" Champ Bear asked wearily.

"Nope. You?" Dark Heart in red alligator form responded reluctantly.

"No. What about you, Swift Heart?"

The blue-furred rabbit stomped impatiently. "No. I've run the whole perimeter three times, and I still haven't found anything."

"Where's Bright Heart?" Tender Heart noticed the purple raccoon's absence.

"I'll find him." Swift Heart was gone before Tender Heart could agree or dissent.

At present, the four stood within a natural amphitheater, formed by stone outcroppings that had been worn down into a confusing labyrinth over the centuries. All the sharp protrusions had been worn smooth by the constantly running water, and every inch of the blue stone of the pillars and ground shimmered with dampness. The main waterfall roared down in the farthest point of the semicircular-valley, but a hundred smaller falls trickled down the cliffs all along the walls, even up to the entrance. Naturally, large portions of the floor of every corner of the valley were covered by water, so the group was forced to do a lot of wading. Here and there, someone had built a number of small, white footbridges that helped cross the deeper water; the carebear and carebear cousins stuck to these almost exclusively, and since Dark Heart could shift into a more convenient shape, they left it to him to explore the less accessible corners of the amphitheater.

The water, however, was not ordinary water. Just as True Heart had said, it possessed strange, magical properties. Every time Dark Heart slithered through a pool, he saw a flash of something – like an image that lingered for a millisecond on the backs of his eyelids. From the startled yelps he heard each time one of the others splashed into a pool, he assumed they were experiencing the same thing as well.

The next puddle that the alligator Dark Heart dove into was deeper than the others. For just a moment, the water covered his scaly form completely, and the resulting image shimmered in his mind just as wholly. Dark Heart 'saw' Christy lying limply in his arms, glowing an unhealthy red from the burst of magic she had absorbed. All the horror and anguish of that moment flooded back into Dark Heart's mind, and he leapt upward out of the pool to try to escape it.

In doing so, he only managed to slip over and into an adjoining pool. Again, the dream waters washed over him, and Dark Heart 'saw,' as plainly as if it were happening again, the moment he had slipped, struck his head, and fallen out of a camp boat into the murky lake. Then, just like he remembered, suddenly he saw Christy's face before him, and realized she had pulled him back into the boat, saving him from drowning. As he had then, he asked again now, _Why?_

_Christy, her lovely brown hair plastered to her neck and dripping, half-smiled at Dark Heart. 'Good or bad, you're still a person . . . or whatever you are.'_

The red alligator surged upward and scrambled onto a large rock, out of the water. He gasped for breath, but not from lack of air. Convulsively, he shook himself as a dog might to try to get all the water off of himself.

"Are you okay, sports fan?" Champ asked, sounding a bit concerned.

_Still a person . . . or whatever you are. Whatever you are._ "What am I?" Dark Heart sighed loudly.

"You're Dark Heart – you're you!" Swift Heart, who had evidently returned while Dark Heart was submerged, smacked his foot against the ground for emphasis. "And all that matters is to be the best that you can be!"

Dark Heart wheezed, then poofed into a red flamingo and shook out his wings. "You're right. Thank you. I guess I'm just worried . . ."

"Well, you'd better save your worrying!" Just that, Bright Heart came running over. "I just spotted Beastly and Shrieky right behind the main waterfall. They have a big barrel that they're trying to fill up with water!"

"Oh no!" Champ exclaimed, striking his forehead. "Come on, guys, let's hurry!"

Dark Heart asked nervously, "Are we too late?"

Bright Heart shrugged and answered, "I yelled and startled Beastly, which made him spill the whole barrel so that they had to start over . . ."

Deciding he could not waste a moment, Dark Heart took advantage of his wings and flapped into the air. Even as this relatively slow-flying bird, he still arrived moments before the carebears and cousins came into view of the two villains.

Whatever Dark Heart had expected to see, these two were not it. He had not gotten a clear glimpse of them before. Shrieky was nothing more than a child, apparently the same age as the kids at the summer camp. Her green-streaked purple hair, combined with her heartless scowl, however, made her more believable as a villainess. She had not yet noticed the red flamingo blatantly staring at her. Something obviously annoyed her, though; she held up an ornate, antique mirror, and by use of some magic made it project a lightning bolt to strike a fuzzy animal.

Or thing. What was it? Beastly seemed to defy description or categories. The first impression he gave Dark Heart was that of a hairy warthog that walked upright on spider legs. When struck by the green lightning, Beastly hollered in pain, leapt in the air, and knocked over the big, brown barrel beside him. The barrel's water gushed out into the large pool beneath the falls.

"Beastly! You clumsy imbecile!" Shrieky's voice reached into a painful pitch and volume. Dark Heart thought she could not get any worse – then she screamed. The water, the rocks, the air, Dark Heart's ears all shuddered at the shrill and deafening outburst.

"Yaaa–ah-ah-ah!" Beastly fell over backwards, pushed by the force of volume, and landed with a splosh in a smallish puddle.

"Arrrgh! I'll do it myself!" With nose in the air, Shrieky grabbed hold of the barrel, which was as tall as her waist, and began refilling it.

Dark Heart had had enough of this. "Stop it right there, you two!" He morphed into a giant octopus in his customary cloud of red smoke. "What do you think you're doing here, anyway?"

"What?" Shrieky started, nearly losing her grip on the barrel. "Eep!"

"What is that thing?" Beastly asked Shrieky, with a befuddled look on his face.

"How should I know, furball?! Hurry up! We have to get this water back to Uncle No Heart."

"Oh – Right away, Shrieky."

"W-wait a second – Uncle No Heart?" Dark Heart sputtered.

"Hold it right there!" came a familiar voice from behind Dark Heart, interrupting him: the cavalry had arrived.

Dark Heart dropped his question for the moment and latched onto the barrel with three of his eight legs. "Give it up, you . . . bad guys! We won't let you use this to hurt the people of Earth."

"You're no carebear! So, why don't you . . . mind your own business!" Shrieky raised her mirror and aimed the magic lightning straight at Dark Heart.

While trying to dodge, Dark Heart accidentally let go of the barrel and slid sideways into a pool. The water splashed around his tentacles, and unbidden an image came to mind of terrified carebears and cousins fleeing in terror as he followed them in the form of a sinister, red-eyed cloud. "I don't have time for this now!" Dark Heart grit his teeth, pushed himself back onto land, and changed shape into a crimson grizzly bear.

"What the – ?" Beastly gaped. "Shrieky, did you see – ?"

Dark Heart bounded forward. "Give me that barrel!" He reared up on his hind legs.

In the background, the carebears tried to 'stare' Beastly, but he dodged. Surprising everyone, perhaps even himself, Beastly head butted Dark Heart in the stomach. Dark Heart yelped in pain and slid off the wet stone into a slightly deeper pool. He splashed violently, trying to get back on his feet, so all he 'saw' were unfocused scenes of darkness, full of mysterious people and places that he could not identify. He got back onto solid rock, and checked himself over where Beastly had hit him. He was bleeding slightly midchest because of the point of Beastly's bomber cap, so he resolved the problem by shifting into human form, since injuries usually would disappear as soon as he changed to something smaller.

Shrieky ignored the fight and just tried to fill the barrel; Beastly tried to growl threateningly, then charged Dark Heart again. Dark Heart's reflexes were actually better in his human form, so he easily dodged. Meanwhile, Swift Heart and Bright Heart combined their 'call,' and its burst of caring forced Shrieky to drop the barrel and dodge to one side. While Shrieky tried to retaliate by shooting lightning with her mirror, Dark Heart dove over and grabbed the barrel from her, then threw it at the big waterfall. It got caught up in the churning water, and bobbed up and down, up, heading behind the falls, slowly farther and farther out of everyone's reach.

"Look out!" Tender Heart's voice just barely cut through the rumble of the water.

Dark Heart spun around, and found Beastly sneaking up with a large rock in his hand. Champ Bear 'stared' at just that moment, which hit Beastly, who spun around on one foot until he finally bumped into Dark Heart. Dark Heart stumbled and his foot slid on the wet stone. The waterfall suddenly seemed much, much louder, and then darkness swallowed him completely.

'_Lord Dark Heart, the Sky People continue to retreat,' a sickly wraith reported in a respectful whisper._

_Dark Heart growled in irritation then began pacing the perimeter of the black, slime-coated room. 'So pursue them!'_

'_They have . . . passed beyond our reach at present.' The gray-hued creature shrank under the force of Dark Heart's disapproval. Despite this, it did not otherwise show fear, or any other emotion. 'Until we can gain more power . . .'_

'_Argh! Curse it!' Dark Heart throw a mauve fireball at the creature, which it easily dodged from long practice. The slime caught fire, however, and burned up in a smoky, white blaze. Dark Heart ignored the flame; as cold as this tower was, it would soon burn out anyway. 'Do you have any more bad news for me now?'_

'_Not bad news per se . . . do you recall the creatures that dwell in the lowest of the Cloud Kingdoms?' The wraith was completely unruffled by Dark Heart's outburst._

'_Which ones? There were many . . . oh, do you mean those multi-colored things?'_

'_Yes, Lord Dark Heart.'_

'_Well? Have they been defeated yet?'_

'_No, Lord Dark Heart.'_

'_You said this wasn't bad news!' Dark Heart started casting another fireball in warning._

_The wraith shook its gray head. 'They have decimated the weaker servants. Therefore, the Master has ordered that you – personally – go deal with them.'_

'_Ordered –? Oh, very well.' Dark Heart let the fireball dissolve. 'They will be a waste of my time – but tell the Master that I will depart immediately.'_

'_Of course.' The wraith left through the doorway, as it was too solid to pass through the walls._

_Dark Heart left through the other doorway and walked out onto the battlement of a castle. The stone out here was as dark as inside, but slightly less slimy. A few stars flickered weakly through the dark cloud that choked the sky, and a freezing wind rushed across the castle wall. Dark Heart could not feel the cold, but he did feel something rustling around his neck. He closed his hand around the triangular object, and realized suddenly that he ought not to take this with him. This pendant was too valuable to risk losing – after all, Dark Heart needed it to . . . to . . ._

_It was so hard to think. Dark Heart clutched at his head a moment, then pulled the pendant off. He needed to find a safe place for the pendant, right away. But why he needed to – he could not seem to remember – why was so hard to think . . . ? It felt like he was slowly being crushed . . ._

Dark Heart got a solid grip on the hard stone with his left hand. With all his remaining strength, he pulled his sopping body out of the water, away from the waterfall's power. Involuntarily he coughed, spitting up only a mouthful of water – much less than he would have expected. With great concentration, he stood fully and straightened upright.

Shrieky and Beastly cowered before him, frozen in profound terror.

Dark Heart decided not to question why and to instead use it to his advantage. Trying to make his voice sound as deep and authoritative as he could, he rasped, "You two – leave – now!!" His words echoed loudly throughout the amphitheater, the resonance of his voice startling even him.

"Y-y-y –" Beastly could not get the word to pass the end of his tongue.

Shrieky, though her knees tremored, took command. "Get moving, furball!" She led the way behind a boulder, and after muffled cursing, their junky helicopter-contraption wobbled into the air. "Hurry! Beastly, why aren't you pedaling faster?!"

"This is already as fast as I-aaaaaaaaaah!!" As they cleared the rim of the cliff, a big gust of wind grabbed the chopper and yanked the vehicle swiftly up and away, out of sight.

"Phew!" Dark Heart sighed loudly immediately after the villains had gone. "Am I ever glad that's over with!"

"Dark Heart?" Bright Heart asked.

The fear and uncertainty in the raccoon's voice immediately drew Dark Heart's attention. "What? Is something the matter?"

"Whoa . . . Dark Heart, is that really you?" Swift Heart echoed.

This behavior puzzled Dark Heart. "What are you talking about?" Come to think of it, the carebear and cousins did seem a lot shorter than usual. Perhaps Shrieky had shrunk them while he had been stuck in the water? Then Dark Heart happened to look down at his hands.

"Wha-what in the world?" He now wore gloves – blood red, and ending with sharp points like talons at his finger tips. That was not all – his trademark running suit had been replaced by a floor-length robe, bright royal purple trimmed with yellow piping. Then Dark Heart observed, puzzled, that the ground seemed farther out of reach than usual. Finally, he realized the carebears had not shrunk – he had grown!


	4. Searching For A Memory

_Here we are, finally -- thank you all for your patience. At the last minute, I decided to completely change the flashback in chapter 3, but that meant I then had to significantly modify chapter 4. Anyway, I'm happy with both chapters for now, and I'm pleased to say that I don't think the next chapter will take as long to fix._

_Another fun note (I'll doublecheck later, when I have more time), but I think the story now to this point is as long as my first draft was. I think that's pretty cool -- especially since the original ending seemed so rushed to me._

_Don't copy part of the whole of this story without permission. All characters that did not appear in the original shows or movies are mine._

_Also, good luck to all who, like me, are now back in school! Have a nice day!  
_

**Darkest Hearts**

_by Maelstra_

Ch 4: Searching for a Memory

* * *

"I . . . changed?" Dark Heart reached up to rub his head, but his hand encountered only cloth. He tugged at the hood and pulled it completely off. "I didn't feel myself change . . ." Anxiously, he patted his face and discovered he still seemed to have the human features of a nose and mouth. For a moment he felt a wave of dizziness from his new altitude – but it quickly passed. 

"Um . . . here." Bright Heart focused his 'call' and created a cloud-rimmed mirror out of the caring light.

Dark Heart gratefully took the mirror and studied his new form. "Whoa . . ." His eyes were still a serene blue, but now his ears were elongated and pointed, and his hair was red – no longer a human orange. Most surprising though were the spiraling, black marks that crisscrossed his entire face. "What is this stuff?" He poked at one of the lines on his nose with a gloved finger. The mark smeared and turned the glove's fingertip black. "Hm. At least it's not permanent . . ."

"How do you feel, Dark Heart?" Champ asked, his voice tremoring slightly despite his attempt to sound confident.

"I feel just fine." The more he looked at the face in the mirror, the more he felt it suited him. As much as it had surprised him at first, now . . . it just seemed right.

"You sure frightened Beastly and Shrieky," Swift Heart laughed – but the laugh sounded a bit forced. "I mean . . . you disappeared under the water for a long time . . . and then you just suddenly burst back up."

"I remembered something . . ." Dark Heart pinned the mirror to his side under one arm while he removed his red, taloned gloves. To his surprise, his hands underneath were swirled with the same kind of markings as on his face. He bent down – way, way down – and tried to wash the black marks off in the magic pool. As he touched the water, the strange, dream-like scene he had been wrapped up in moments ago seemed to flicker beneath the water, like an image reflected on a soap bubble. "I saw things . . . from a long time ago . . . from when I was still under the control of the darkness." He traced a fingertip across the water, and he could faintly see still older memories swirling within. The darkness he sensed within revolted him now. "I don't think . . . I was always that way. I think I must have been captured by the darkness . . . and changed into the thing I was when you first met me."

"So – is this what you really are?" Lotsa Heart interrupted with a soft trumpet blast.

"I think so." Dark Heart splashed water on his face and rubbed at the marks. Once he looked in the mirror again and saw his clean face, he felt all the more certain that this – whatever it was – was his true form. "This is me," he murmured, mostly to himself.

"Hey, alright!" Champ seemed fully over his previous nervousness. "So, did you remember anything about No Heart?"

"No," Dark Heart sighed. He had momentarily forgotten all about that other question. "All the memories I saw were only about me – the only others I saw in my memories were the children at the summer camp, and you carebears."

"So . . ." Swift Heart glanced at the others, then finally just asked the question himself. "What are you going to do about No Heart?"

Dark Heart bit his lip and looked down into the water. He ran a hand through it, wishing with all his heart that it would show him something, anything, that might answer the question of whether No Heart was his brother. Despite his wish, though, his mind remained blank. The images under the water shifted into progressively deeper darkness, things Dark Heart did not wish to see. At last he stood. "I still don't know anything for sure – so I'm going to have to ask him."

With Shrieky and Beastly gone, there was no reason for the carebears to linger any longer at the falls. They immediately headed back to Carealot to report their success. Once there, Dark Heart sought out True Heart to tell her his plans and to ask her advice.

"You really intend to face No Heart again?" she asked, concerned.

"Yes. I need to; I must know. Before you found me again, I had not noticed how much I had forgotten – now, this . . . it's very important to me, True Heart."

"I . . . understand," she sighed. "But surely you're not going to go alone!"

"Why not?" Dark Heart was puzzled. "This concerns only me – I don't want to put any of you at risk."

"We're your friends, Dark Heart. We can't let you go off into danger alone, either." True Heart folded her arms and looked at him with unwavering intensity. "Please . . . let us help you. We'll have a large group of carebears come along to protect you in case No Heart tries to attack you again."

"Well . . ." Dark Heart hated to admit that he was powerless – but without his former dark powers, really the only ability he knew that he had was his shapechanging ability. "Okay, True Heart. Thank you – I'm really lucky to have friends like you who are so willing to support me."

"That's what friends are for, of course!" True Heart gave him a hug, though at Dark Heart's present height, she could only reach to hug him around the knees.

Dark Heart could not reach low enough to hug True Heart back, so he settled for patting her on the head. "So . . . when can we leave?"

"As soon as I order a party of carebears together." She smiled up at Dark Heart, then added softly, "I hope we can help you find what you're looking for, Dark Heart."

* * *

True Heart was completely serious about trying to look after Dark Heart. Since No Heart had reacted so badly last time, this time she decided to bring a small army of a dozen carebears for the infiltration, including herself, Noble Heart, Proud Heart, Tender Heart, and Good Luck. As they walked through the stone corridors of No Heart's castle again, Dark Heart had to smile every time he heard the carebears muttering and reassuring each other. Their absolute caring for each other really was quite endearing, and even though they all tended to cower behind him, just knowing they were here to support him made him feel a bit more confident about the whole situation.

At most major intersections, Dark Heart would pause and let one of the carebears – usually Proud Heart – give her opinion as to which way they should go. With the relative failure of the last trip in mind, the carebear army had landed on the ground level this time, and were hoping to sneak up on No Heart by the back way.

More than half an hour passed as they continued creeping along darkened hallways and up rickety staircases.

"Shadows," Noble Heart whispered a warning to Dark Heart and the others, then immediately pressed himself to the wall.

But by then, Dark Heart had had enough of this sneaking. He had opted to make the whole trip in his tall, humanlike form, and now he pulled his floppy, blue hood out of his sleeve and put it on. After taking a deep breath to gather his courage, Dark Heart stepped out into the hallway and faced the shadows.

When they saw his cowled form, the shadows hesitated – as Dark Heart had hoped. With a deliberate effort to rasp, Dark Heart demanded, "Where is No Heart?"

The shadows shuddered in unison, then flew away down the hallway and made a sharp left turn at the end. After several, anxious moments, they still did not reappear.

"Do you think we should follow them?" Dark Heart turned and asked the carebears in his normal tone of voice.

"Of course!" Good Luck approved. As all eyes turned on him, he tried to justify himself. "I mean . . . since we were already so lucky that the shadows didn't attack us . . ."

"Okay then," Noble Heart consented. "But let's hurry ahead, in case the shadows are just coming back with reinforcements."

Proud Heart Cat took the lead, with a nod of approval from Dark Heart, and she led them across the hallway and up the twisting staircase that sprouted off on the left. Onward they went, past several more doorways, and then up to a elaborate archway. After glancing through, Proud Heart immediately jumped back and pressed herself against the wall on the outside. Dark Heart looked at her in confusion, but Proud Heart just weakly motioned him to go on ahead.

Hesitantly, Dark Heart entered the room and saw a familiar, blue-robed person sitting at a stone desk, focusing deeply on some sort of arcane book. Dark Heart already knew what he would say, having rehearsed it in his head a hundred times on the way up. He cleared his throat and began, "No Heart, we need to talk."

No Heart spun around, and was so thoroughly startled he nearly fell over. "Wha-what?!" Dark Heart's cloaked appearance obviously took No Heart aback. "Wh-who are you?"

"My name is Dark Heart." He removed the hood to let No Heart see his face. "I was formerly an enemy of the carebears . . ."

No Heart's eyes flashed red. "The carebears? So – this is another one of their tricks!" He pulled himself up as tall as he could stretch and glowered at Dark Heart. The air around him literally crackled with magic.

This display would have frightened Dark Heart before – but now that he could easily look No Heart in the eye, the act lost most of its effect. "Look, No Heart – I've gone through a lot of trouble trying to remember who I am. The carebears suggested that I might be your twin, and so I want to find out, one way or another." Dark Heart met No Heart's violent gaze with a calm, determined one.

No Heart paused, eyes still burning, considering Dark Heart. His red eyes darted around, taking in Dark Heart's face, hair, and robes. "Then prove to me that you are my brother."

"I don't know how." Dark Heart tried to keep his voice steady. "I was hoping that you would have some idea."

For another long, tense moment, No Heart just glowered at Dark Heart. Finally, his eyes faded to their normal deep red, and he relaxed his stance. "Very well. I'll play your game for a moment." He took a deep breath and hollered, "Shrieky!!"

"What are you doing?" Dark Heart raised an eyebrow.

No Heart, though he had no mouth, smirked evilly. "You'll see."

Dark Heart rolled his eyes, then tried to surreptitiously glance behind himself to check on his carebear friends. Proud Heart and Champ Bear were momentarily visible, peeking around the arched doorway. Champ Bear flashed Dark Heart a thumbs up.

"What is it, Uncle No Heart?" Shrieky's shrill voice just barely preceded her arrival into the chamber through a second door on the far side. She noticed Dark Heart. Her mouth dropped in a voiceless gasp, and she dove to cower behind No Heart. "It's him! It's him – I told you, at Prism Falls –!"

"Silence, Shrieky." No Heart's smirk came through in his tone of voice. "I want you to meet . . . your father."

"My what?!" she squawked.

"Father?!" Dark Heart made a horrified face. "You can't be serious!"

No Heart chuckled. "Shrieky here is my niece. If you are my brother, as you claim, then that would make her your daughter."

Dark Heart choked. "Um . . ." _Would I remember if I had a daugher?_ He internally groaned. He had no recollection of his (hypothetical) brother as it was. And now this? "Eh . . . No Heart – I really remember next to nothing about my past . . . and so I can't guarantee she's not mine. But on the other hand, I think she looks a lot more like you . . ."

"Yes . . ." No Heart narrowed his eyes, glancing between Shrieky and Dark Heart. He asked deliberately, "So, Shrieky – is Dark Heart your father?"

"Um–!" She bit her lip and looked desperately at No Heart, then briefly at Dark Heart, then back to No Heart again. "No?" She did not sound terribly certain. Shrieky realized this, and so clung to No Heart's arm. "But, that doesn't matter! As long as I have you, Uncle No Heart – !"

"Shrieky, let go of me." He shook the girl off his arm and shoved her aside.

Dark Heart stared at the pair for a moment, then sighed deeply and shrugged. "I guess the answer is 'no,' then." The disappointment stung – more than Dark Heart had expected. _Not only the carebears . . . but I also was really hoping that he could be –_

"Yes, you foolish creature." No Heart came forward and grabbed a fistful of Dark Heart's robe, just under his chin, and yanked upward so that Dark Heart had to go up on his tiptoes. "As much as I relish your humiliation, I want you to leave now, and never show your face to me again . . ."

Dark Heart's eyes wandered downward from No Heart's eyebrows until his gaze caught on the pendant No Heart wore around his neck. It was a very plain thing – a chunky, triangular piece of silver that had a perfectly spherical red stone in the exact center. But Dark Heart could not break his gaze free from it, though No Heart continued threatening him.

Something pushed on the back of his mind, infuriating him until it finally broke through and he recalled – recalled the last, minutely-detailed vision he had had at Prism Falls; recalled seeing that same pendant nestled within the palm of his red-gloved hand . . .

_I owned that very necklace before!_ Dark Heart suddenly felt with complete certainty. A burst of possessiveness overcame his hesitation. Dark Heart's hand shot out and grabbed the pendant, then he transformed into a hawk and yanked the pendant up and over No Heart's head before the dark lord could react. Dark Heart flapped hard, quickly gaining altitude and carrying the necklace far beyond No Heart's reach.

"No! Curse you! Come back here!" No Heart vainly tried to chase the hawk on the ground. Finally, he glanced over and noticed Shrieky still motionless. "Don't just stand there – make yourself useful, Shrieky!"

She looked helplessly around the room. "But Un- . . . but Lord No Heart! I don't know how to transform . . ." She trailed off, then her eyebrows quirked as she got an idea. Shrieky reached into the pocket of her red dress and whipped out her magic mirror. "Here – how would you like a taste of this, you . . . counterfeit . . . carebear-loving . . . thing!"

"No, Shrieky!!" No Heart dove over and knocked the mirror from her hand before she could shoot even one bolt toward Dark Heart. "You fool! You might hit my pendant!"

Dark Heart had ample time to make a full circle of the room, and he finally landed in the doorway, beside all the carebears, who finally darted out of hiding to form a protective ring about their friend. Shrieky and No Heart charged forward once they saw Dark Heart descending, but they then hesitated, unsure if they dared approach any closer in the presence of so many of their enemies.

Dark Heart transformed back to his tall, purple-robed form. He immediately slipped the necklace on around his neck, then held the triangular pendant in his hand and closed his fingers around it tightly. The metal, but more especially the stone, felt icy cold to the touch. _Ugh – it's saturated with evil. Why did I want this thing, anyway? _Dark Heart wracked his mind, but whatever memory had been teasing him just moments before had fled. "What's the big deal about this pendant anyway?" he said, only just loud enough for the surrounding carebears to hear, but really asking no one but himself.

"Give it to me!" No Heart hesitantly crept closer, despite the presence of the carebears. Trying to emphasize his point, he stretched his clawlike hands out toward his precious necklace as he slowly floated forward. Shrieky just lurked behind his robes, trying to keep a 'tough' look on her face.

True Heart spoke up quietly, "I thought the pendant was the source of all of No Heart's powers."

"Really?" Dark Heart opened his hand and gazed into the red stone. The color was so bright, so pure – it was strangely hypnotic. "I can . . . indeed sense great power in the stone. But wait – can't you transform without this?" Dark Heart said loudly to No Heart, showing him the pendant for emphasis.

No Heart glared balefully at Dark Heart, but made no response.

Dark Heart frowned and looked down at the stone again. "But, that doesn't make sense. I don't need this pendant to transform. So why should you? I don't think this is meant to primarily be a power source. . ."

A faint flicker of a memory returned to Dark Heart as he stared into the stone. _Shadow creatures using something – this pendant? no, but something similar – to lock something away . . . _"The pendant . . . is a key?" Dark Heart tried to hold onto the memory, to glean any more information from it, but the tighter he tried to grasp it, the faster it slipped away.

No Heart, meanwhile, had gotten quite near while Dark Heart was preoccupied. The front line carebears looked up fearfully at the sinister shadow man, and unconsciously kept scooting backwards, just a little bit further . . . and further away. No Heart's eyes flashed red, and then he lunged for the necklace.

Dark Heart stepped back just in time, and clasped his fist around it by reflex. "I remember now, No Heart . . . this pendant was originally mine. When I was sent to 'deal with' the carebears, I chose to leave it behind, to protect it. All I can recall after that is that I gave it to someone for safe keeping, with the promise that I would claim it when I returned. I suppose I must have given it to you . . . but, no matter. Now, I will take back what is rightfully mine!"

Dark Heart could feel the magic burning within the red stone – deep, dark, hateful magic that swirled up a nostalgic longing in his soul. He could have everything again. He could be powerful again – he could have the strength to make No Heart, Shrieky, and all the people of the world cower in awe! He could destroy all enemies . . . and strike down any who stood in his way!

Then, a memory of Christy flashed through his mind. The human girl, who had been brave enough to stand up to him when he had been doing wrong . . .

. . . He could hurt his friends again . . .

_No. No more._

Dark Heart released the pendant as abruptly as if it had burned him, and he then pushed down the part of him that wanted to draw on the sealed magics of the red orb. _It has no power over me now . . . it's just the memory!_ he tried to tell himself. His head slowly cleared, but he still felt oddly disoriented. "I feel . . . so strange . . ." he moaned, closing his eyes and rubbing his hands across his face. He felt someone grasp his wrist, so he opened his eyes and looked into No Heart's hateful, red eyes. Dark Heart sighed. "Why can't I remember anything properly?"

"Dark Heart," Proud Heart nervously said, "for a minute there, your eyes were red . . ."

No Heart kept his grip on Dark Heart's wrist. "What do you remember . . . of when you gave the pendant away?" he rasped.

Dark Heart tried to dig anything more up, but the memory would not come. No Heart wrapped his free hand around the triangular pendant, though he did not yet try to take it. Dark Heart squeezed his eyes shut and willed with all his strength to remember . . . but to no avail. "I remember nothing else from back then. I don't even remember most of what happened as I hunted the carebears, really . . . Just that I pursued the carebears, and finally laid a trap for them on Earth – but I couldn't go through with it in the end because of a human girl . . .

"And then I never came back – because once I lost the darkness, I couldn't remember anymore . . ."

"What? That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard!" Shrieky sniffed.

No Heart slowly released the necklace and moved back a full arm's span. Slowly, he turned and glowered down at Shrieky. "Shrieky . . . now I have a question for you. If Dark Heart is not your father, then where did you come from?"

Shrieky backed away, wringing her hands. No Heart drifted closer to her and continued, "And, can you tell me why it is I can't remember why I agreed to let you stay here with me?"

Shrieky shivered all over. "But you can't say that you actually believe that . . . that faker!"

No Heart flicked at red-eyed glance in Dark Heart's direction. "I'm not yet certain about him . . . But if I don't have grounds to believe him, I have even less to believe you. When did you first come here, anyway? The moment is fogged in my mind – as though you simply appeared one day without any explanation . . . And then you just regularly disappear to 'go home' . . . I don't even know where it is that you go . . ."

"But . . . Uncle No Heart! I can explain!"

"Don't call me uncle." No Heart loomed over the girl. "You're of no relation to me at all, aren't you? Why should I, the Lord of Evil and Hate, be looking after a little girl anyway? I shouldn't care about anybody!" The last statement was a realization of the contradiction he had been living. "If I don't care, why should I have a niece? Why should I even have an assistant? I am No Heart – I don't need anyone!"

"No, Uncle – I mean Lord No Heart! It's not like that –!"

"Leave!" No Heart hissed. "Take that repugnant hairball of yours and get out of my castle!"

"But–!"

"I'll give you two minutes to be gone! If not –!" He left the threat unstated.

Shrieky, white-faced, ran from the room, her footfalls sounding loudly on the hard stone.

Dark Heart's heart was pounding in sympathy for the girl. "No Heart, was that really necessary?"

"She's not even your daughter, and yet you still care about her? You disgust me!" No Heart flared his eyes and growled.

"Oh, give it up already. I'm not scared of you anymore," Dark Heart said, shaking his head. Then, as he looked at No Heart, he got a crazy idea and smirked uncontrollably as he stepped forward. "Hey now . . . how about we see what you really look like under that hood. . ."

"No!!" No Heart growled poisonously.

"Come on, just a little look . . ."

"No! Absolutely not! Get away from me, you caring freak!" he hissed as he skirted backwards.

Dark Heart persisted, lunging for No Heart. Then somehow – perhaps tripping on the edge of his long robe – he lost his balance and fell forward. He regained stability, then realized the fingertips of his left hand could feel cloth . . . and his left arm was stuck beneath No Heart's flashing eyes, exactly where his nose should be. "Um . . . Eh heh . . . So, you don't . . . have a face . . . Okay . . ."

No Heart growled, so Dark Heart speedily removed his arm from the evil man's hood.

No Heart attempted to look more intimidating by drawing himself up taller, but he and Dark Heart were too near the same height for the trick to be effective. Nevertheless, with his eyes like flaming lava, and his voice dripping with hate, No Heart well conveyed his threat as he declared, "Even though you have obviously been tainted with the carebears' love and caring, on the vague chance that you might be my brother . . . for the sake of his memory, if you leave my castle immediately and never return . . . I will let you live. Otherwise, I will not hesitate in obliterating you where you stand!"

"Um . . ." Dark Heart shrank back, still half-grinning nervously. "Can't we talk this over?"

No Heart's eyes flashed again, but before he could deliver whatever threat he had planned, a sudden chill wind swept through the whole room.

"What was that?" several of the carebears asked, terrified.

"Utter . . . evil?" Dark Heart was inexplicably paralyzed. Even No Heart no longer frightened him, but this . . .

No Heart was not immune to the presence either. The angry fire in his eyes went completely out. "What's . . . what's going on?" His voice tremored, and he turned to Dark Heart, demanding an explanation.

Dark Heart tried to shrug but could not quite manage as his body was too tense with fright. He remembered his own words that he had spoken to the carebear cousins at Prism Falls: 'I must have been captured by the darkness . . . .' He recalled the absolute blackness of the last images he had seen in the Prism pools. Dark Heart was certain then that they were all in unspeakable danger – but especially the carebears.

No Heart looked around the room wildly, trying to see whatever it was he sensed. "It can't be . . . I am the master . . ." he muttered to himself.

No Heart's odd behavior broke Dark Heart free of his paralysis. He wasted no more time, and smoothly slipped the pendant off and pressed it into Proud Heart Cat's paws. "Here. Take this, and run. You have to get out of here, now."

"But –?"

"No questions, no buts – just go! There's no time!" Dark Heart glanced back at No Heart, who appeared to be growing more agitated in his pacing.

Most of the carebears backed out of the doorway, but Proud Heart and Tender Heart still hesitated.

"Go!" Dark Heart waved his arms, emphatically shooing. "Don't let it find it! Don't let it find you!"

The carebears seemed to understand Dark Heart's incoherent plea – or at least finally acknowledged his desperation – and they vanished quickly.

Dark Heart breathed a tense sigh of relief, then hurried over to No Heart and grabbed the blue-robed creature by his arm. "No Heart, we shouldn't stay here, either. Do you know what's coming?"

"I don't know! I don't understand . . . How can there be something more dark and uncaring than I am?! What is this? Don't you know?"

"No, I . . . I . . ." Dark Heart choked and dropped to his knees. ". . . M-master . . ."

No Heart also fell down in a bow. "Master . . ." He struggled to lift his gaze up from the floor, but found there was a palpable force holding him down.

A black shade entered the room, melting through the stone wall directly opposite No Heart and Dark Heart. Its arms and face were paler mist, but the rest of its form was as black as No Heart's shadows. The wraith was tall, and vaguely feminine, and it spoke with an unkind croon, "Shrieky called and told me there was a disturbance here. It seems I've come just in time."


	5. The Empress of Shadows

_Here's the next chapter. I don't know what else to say, except that I am such a perfectionist. :) No matter how good I think a story is, I just can't resist tweaking it a little more . . . and a little more . . ._

_Don't copy part of the whole of this story without permission. All characters that did not appear in the original shows or movies are mine. _

_Also, if you notice any typos, plotholes, or incoherent segments, please feel free to let me know. Thanks!  
_

**Darkest Hearts**

_by Maelstra_

Ch 5: The Empress of Shadows

* * *

No Heart tried to speak but found his voice had been stolen away. With great effort, he turned his head and saw that Dark Heart was shivering uncontrollable while crouching low in a completely subservient bow. No Heart again felt dozens of memories swirling chaotically through his head, the same as it had been when he had been attacked by the caring crystals. No Heart had always worked alone – and yet, this thing was his master? The apparent contradiction aggravated him. He wanted to throttle an explanation out of the creature claiming to be his brother, but under the gaze of the shadow woman, No Heart could scarcely control his own limbs. 

The shadow creature drifted closer. It's eyes flickered red. "Well . . . what do we have here?" She extended one long finger under the red-haired youth's chin, and lifted his head up. "Dark Heart?" she crooned, chuckling. "I didn't expect to see you again. And just look at you!" The shadow woman grabbed Dark Heart by the neck and forced him to sit up higher. "You've managed to break every single one of the spells I put on you. Answer me now: have you come back to rejoin the ranks of evil?" She loosened her grip on his throat only slightly.

Dark Heart gasped, and he squirmed like he did not want to answer the question but her magic compelled him to do so. "No. I will never again serve the forces of darkness. Or you, Empress!" Though he choked at the end, his tone was decisive.

"If that is the case, then why have you dared to return now?" she hissed.

"I-I wanted to find my brother." His voice quavered, and the answer sounded like it had been ripped out of him.

"Ugh – pitiful! Such a waste! You were my most reliable servant, Dark Heart. Every campaign I sent you on was a complete success – except the last one." The empress tightened her one-handed grip on Dark Heart's throat, her skinny fingers wrapping completely around his neck. "The great general Dark Heart, defeated by a bunch of loving – happy – cute – bears!" Her eyes flared red, and for a moment her mouth was visible: it was full of sharp, green fangs. "Doesn't that make you feel pathetic?!"

"Nn – maybe. But I'm glad the carebears stopped me," Dark Heart gasped.

The Shadow Empress growled in frustration. "And why did you think I would tolerate such traitorous behavior? You are a disgrace to the ranks of evil!" With that, she called on her dark powers, generating a blazing ball of green light in her free hand. Though the blinding light hurt No Heart's eyes, he could not look away as the Empress brought her shining hand over to rest atop the one wrapped around Dark Heart's neck. The spell flared even brighter, and No Heart had to look away or else truly be blinded. When the light at last vanished and No Heart looked back, he saw something limp melt down through the Empress's fingers and form a dark puddle on the floor. Dark Heart was gone, completely drained away.

No Heart gasped, and before he thought about what he has doing, he stuttered, "W-why?"

"Dark Heart was unsalvageable." The Queen turned her full attention to her remaining creature and leaned slightly closer. "Now you, No Heart. Are you yet loyal to me?"

"O-of course, master!" No Heart spoke the words before he even considered what he was saying. He flattened himself to the floor again in a servile bow, tension running all through his shadowy form.

"I am pleased to hear that. It seems you've become a wiser servant than your brother," the Queen said nonchalantly. "Now, tell me – what have you been doing all these years I've left you unsupervised?"

"I . . ." the words stuck in his throat unexpectedly. Shock momentarily paralyzed him. The Empress of Shadows had just confirmed that Dark Heart had been his brother. And not only that – she had also implied that all his painstaking plans and efforts over the years had only been to fulfil her orders. Had he never been acting under his own initiative? He remembered again, clearly, the scene the carebear's caring crystals had forced him to recall:

'_Your brother is gone,' the Empress had told him dispassionately, looming over his kneeling form. 'The carebears he was pursuing destroyed him.'_

'_Then I will avenge my brother!' he had replied, letting blind rage swallow his heart. 'I will annihilate every last one of those carebears, even if I have to follow them to the ends of the earth!'_

Too many memories, all at once: the Empress of Shadows – No Heart's forgotten master who dictated his every action; his brother – found and lost again, so quickly; and now, the Empress was still impatiently awaiting No Heart's answer to her question. He rushed to spit out appropriate words. "I have been working endlessly to achieve the destruction of the carebears."

"That is a worthy goal," the Empress declared, appeased. "You will continue with it. Meanwhile, I must build up my forces again. I've let myself be distracted by other affairs for too long. Until Shrieky apprised me of the situation, I had not realized how far things had deteriorated." She stretched back up to her full height and started to turn away. "Oh – and I'm taking all my shadows back with me. You can no longer control them anyway." The shadow woman crooned shrilly, and promptly dozens of shadows rushed into the room, answering their sovereign's call. They all flocked around her, cooing quietly.

No Heart finally felt free to move and dared to sit almost upright. He stared forlornly at the gathered mass of shadows, who had formerly been his servants and guards. Then his gaze inexorably dropped to the dark spot beside him on the floor.

The Shadow Empress threw one last flaming gaze at her blue-robed minion. "Don't think you are somehow immune from punishment, No Heart. Shrieky will remain here to watch you, and she will continue giving me a regular report of your behavior. If you don't make any major progress, and soon . . . then I will dispose of you as well. I have no need of inept servants. Come, my shadows!" The Queen of Shadows departed through the wall like a ghost, and the hundreds of smaller shadows floated after her with gleeful moans.

No Heart released a deep breath. As his tension departed, he almost fell over backwards. The Empress's presence left the castle, but her influence lingered. _'I will dispose of you as well . . .'_ No Heart did not doubt it. And Shrieky would be staying, as a spy. She had just been a spy all along, hadn't she? And then, what was Beastly? Did that stupid furball hold some terrible secret, too . . . ?

The dark patch on the floor beside No Heart stirred. As No Heart stared, a ordinary, horned shadow – no different than the dozens of others that had just departed – weakly arose and looked around in apparent confusion. After a moment, it began slowly floating off in the direction the Empress had gone.

"Dark Heart? B-brother?" No Heart whispered, hoping.

The shadow stopped, turned, and looked at No Heart. It crooned faintly in recognition and reached out on tiny hand – then the pull of the Empress overpowered it, and it looked away and again began drifting toward the far wall.

"No! Wait!" No Heart stood and followed the shadow. "Dark Heart!"

Once more, the shadow paused, but more briefly than before. After that moment, it gave No Heart no more recognition than the other shadows had.

Gliding after it quickly, No Heart caught up and grabbed the shadow by its thin arm. It tried to tug away from him, confused as to why he was stopping it. No Heart shook his head, "No, curse it, Dark Heart, I need you here. I must know what has happened. You have to help me remember!"

The shadow only continued trying to squirm out of No Heart's unbreakable grip.

No Heart growled in great frustration. In this state, Dark Heart was just another stupid, mindless shadow, but it still should have obeyed him. All the shadows normally obeyed him completely, without any question. No Heart could not understand why the Queen had said he could no longer control them – nothing had changed, except . . . the pendant! Dark Heart had called it a key . . . The key to controlling the shadows? Very likely – except No Heart knew that it had much more power than that. What else could it be for? Could it possibly be the key to creating or freeing shadows? Could he use it to restore Dark Heart?

No Heart glared down at Dark Heart's uncooperative shadow. "What did you do with the pendant?"

The shadow, unsurprisingly, did not answer. All it did was blink at him and try to squirm away.

No Heart had not seen what Dark Heart had done with the necklace in the brief moment before the Empress of Shadows arrived – but since the Queen had not found and taken it, that really only left one possibility. No Heart growled rhetorically, "Did you really have to give it to those wretched carebears?"

The shadow crooned unintelligibly.

No Heart's eyes flared red and he hissed, "You do realize you've left me no choice?!" As the shadow continued its efforts to float away, No Heart decided to attempt transforming, assuming what Dark Heart had said earlier had been correct, that the magic of the pendant was independent of his magic to transform. Despite his doubts, No Heart succeeded in becoming a tornado and still managing – barely – to hold onto the squirming shadow of Dark Heart. No Heart whirled upward, toward the opening in the ceiling, high overhead, grumbling to himself as he went. "I am the Lord of Evil and Hate. I will not serve some master, even though it might . . . possibly be more powerful than I presently am. I follow no one's orders but my own!"

As they exited through the roof into the open sky, the shadow of Dark Heart crooned increasingly loudly, expressing its annoyance at being dragged the opposite direction from which its Empress had gone.

"Be silent," No Heart hissed in aggravation as he unwillingly flew toward the most abominable, detestable place he knew of: Carealot.

* * *

No Heart plummeted down to Carealot as a whirlwind and landed with a crash of thunder and lightning, instantly reverting to his tall, cowled form. All the carebears scattered in fright, disappearing behind the mediocre shelter offered by their houses. No Heart circled the largest building, a red structure shaped vaguely like a giant heart, trying to catch a carebear to intimidate. He managed to corner five bears, and with his fiercest voice demanded, "Where is the pendant? Where have you hidden it?!" 

"Stare him!" someone yelled from behind.

Before No Heart could respond, the carebears in front of him did just that. "Gyaagh!" No Heart reflexively recoiled and tried to duck out of the line of fire of the caring energy that the carebears projected from their tummy symbols.

"Ready . . . now!" the same voice from behind yelled.

No Heart fell to his knees as he was struck from behind by another beam of energy. By instinct, he threw his hands forward to break his fall – however, this meant he released the shadow of Dark Heart, which rushed upward and away from Carealot.

"No!" No Heart quickly transformed into a grouchy, purple vulture and leapt into the sky. He caught the disobedient shadow in his talons behind it had gone far, then No Heart made a tight circle and landed on the opposite side of the large, red building.

To his surprise, he found there a trio of adult humans who were deep in conversation with a few of the carebears. The oldest looking one, who was wearing a ridiculous, white cowboy hat, immediately cupped his hands around his mouth and hollered, "He's on the back side of the Hall of Hearts!"

The vulture growled in exasperation and poofed back into his normal form. "I don't have time for these games. Where is the pendant?! I need it now!!"

The carebears and the human strangers said nothing, but throughout the background, No Heart could hear whispers of such things as, "If we all stare him at once, he'll probably leave."

Without turning his head to find the speakers, No Heart yelled, "I'm not leaving without my pendant. Now, give it to me – or else!!"

"Or else what?" a human with scraggly black hair inquired coldly.

"Or else, I'll . . . I'll . . ." No Heart choked into sudden silence as he realized he could not cast any spells without releasing his grip on Dark Heart. "Or else you'll regret it!" he finished lamely, then made his eyes flash red for intimidating effect.

"What are you really after, No Heart?" the cowboy hat guy spoke again.

The man – or at least the hat – seemed almost familiar . . . But No Heart did not let his mind dwell on it. "That's none of your concern – my business is only with the carebears!"

"This isn't like him at all," True Heart Bear murmured to the cowboy hat man. Then, she addressed No Heart in a louder voice. "So, just what is it that you want?"

"Haven't you listened to a word I said?" No Heart really wanted to smack these accursed bears over the head, but did not quite dare make a threatening move while thus surrounded. "I - want - my - pendant - back. Is that clear enough for you fuzzballs?"

"Why should we trust you?" Swift Heart Rabbit countered loudly. A number of carebears started murmuring similar sentiments.

"What happened to Dark Heart?" Hugs Bear pushed her way in front of True Heart to be heard. Her twin came up and stood right beside her, protectively.

Somehow seeing those two together spiked a mysterious emotion in No Heart's heart. The feeling irritated him, so he turned it into anger. He held up his left hand, the one still tightly clenching the shadow's arm, and shook it for effect. "This is what happened to Dark Heart! This is why I need the pendant! It's the only thing that might change him back!"

The carebears all looked to each other then huddled to share a moment of quiet consultation. Tender Heart turned to the cowboy-hatted human. "He's really acting strangely. What do you think, Songfellow?"

No Heart suppressed a twitch; he remembered the cowboy man now. Songfellow Strum was some sort of musician who toured around all of Earth and the magical realms. He had a bewitching charisma that made No Heart wary, since the last time that man had come around, he had managed to charm both Beastly and Shrieky into sneaking out to attend a concert.

Songfellow considered a moment, then shook his head and responded confidently, "I think you can't trust him. He's a creature of darkness, and such beings are not prone to changing."

"But Dark Heart changed . . ." True Heart said. She rubbed her chin in thought, then took a trembling step forward to address No Heart again. "What proof do you have that you're telling the truth?"

"Grr . . . I am telling the truth!" What truth did they want proof of anyway? That Dark Heart had really been reduced to this shadow? That No Heart had not attacked his brother himself? That No Heart was presently acting for his own interests and not the Empress's or anyone else's? Nothing No Heart could do now could prove any of that. He stalled, flashing his eyes, clenching and unclenching his free hand. "Just give me the pendant," he finally said, almost whining._ What could I possibly say to convince them of my . . . ugh . . . sincerity?_ He forced himself to add, "Pl-please."

True Heart motioned all the closest carebears and carebear cousins back into a cluster around her. The three humans crouched down to join in as well. "What should we do?" she asked them all. "No Heart's acting so differently from normal – I think . . . I want to believe him . . ."

Noble Heart Horse cleared his throat and said softly, "I think we should all trust your judgement on this one, True Heart."

She nodded, then motioned into the crowd behind them. Proud Heart the tan cat came forward and passed a small, plain box to True Heart. The head carebear then opened the box and withdrew the pendant, holding it up for all to see. "Alright, No Heart. Here: we'll give you this chance to prove that your intentions are good."

No Heart chose to ignore her last statement, and without hesitation floated forward and snatched the pendant from True Heart's paw. He looked it over, fearful that the carebears may have tampered with it, but it appeared to be unaltered. Now that he had the pendant, though, he was faced with a new, difficult question: how did he use it? _'The pendant is a key,'_ Dark Heart's words echoed in his mind. That still meant very little to No Heart. Lacking a better idea, though, he decided to try pressing the metal triangle to the wriggling shadow's forehead. "Hold still!" he grunted to Dark Heart.

The squirming shadow of Dark Heart abruptly froze, and the red stone lit up as it made contact. No Heart cautiously released the shadow's arm, then tried to withdraw the pendant. To his surprise, it would not readily move. Both the shadow and the pendant of the necklace seemed to be completely frozen in space. No Heart grabbed the necklace's chain which still dangled freely, and twined it around his gloved fingers as he contemplated this new puzzle.

_So now what? It appears to control shadows . . . and it's somehow a key. Logically, how does one use a key? Turning it, I suppose._ No Heart ran the gloved fingers of one hand over the triangular pendant. _I may as well give it a try. _He wrapped his fingers tightly around the triangle, then attempted to rotate it. After great exertion, it turned about a quarter of the way clockwise, and then would move no further. "It won't turn!" he growled in exasperation. For some reason, the sensation made him feel like he was trying to rotate something that was at the end of a pole a thousand miles long – like he did not have enough torque to turn something that was so far away. _So . . . now what?_ he pondered as he glared at the pendant and shadow.

"Carebears, let's see if our caring can help No Heart turn that key! On my signal, one, two. . ."

No Heart stiffened in shock. "No!! Not at me!" he protested, but the carebears all began staring on 'three' anyway. Luckily for No Heart, they were aiming for Dark Heart (whom No Heart released very quickly) and not him . . . Still, being so close to the focus of the carebears' 'stare' made No Heart feel a strong backwash of painful kindness and a nauseating dose of good feelings. Only sheer will power let No Heart again reach into the bubble of energy and slowly, slowly turn the key the rest of the full 360 degrees.

Once the pendant completed its rotation, the shadow began glowing a brilliant, kaleidoscopic red. The carebears stopped their staring and shaded their eyes to try to watch. The shadow started growing and stretching out, gradually gaining detail. Then the light on the pendant went out, and both the necklace and the tall shadow dropped onto the cloud. After a tense moment, the red light on the shadow faded away, revealing Dark Heart in his purple robe and dark hood, lying on his face in an awkward-looking position. No Heart knelt down and snatched up the pendant, then roughly flipped the limp figure onto his back. The hood flopped down, covering most of his face, and Dark Heart moaned weakly but did not otherwise respond.

No Heart growled as he shook Dark Heart's shoulder. "Wake up! This is no time to be sick!"

Dark Heart moaned again, then slowly opened one eye, and then the other. "No Heart? You rescued me?" he asked weakly, surprised. "I didn't know you cared."

No Heart shuddered from head to foot. "I don't!" he shouted, reflexively denying it.

Dark Heart merely chuckled feebly at his twin's expense.

"Dark Heart . . . Are you alright?" True Heart approached him carefully.

"That depends . . . on your definition of 'alright'." With difficulty, he rolled onto his side to face her.

"Then let us give you strength from our love." She grasped his hands in her paws and focused the light from her magic symbol on Dark Heart.

All the closest carebears saw what True Heart was doing and joined in. No Heart flattened himself to the ground to avoid the energy, but all the others carebears only emitted a single burst of loving magic, which was embodied in a glow shaped like their personal symbol. These all momentarily swallowed Dark Heart in a burst of light.

"How do you feel now?" Noble Heart asked, hurrying to Dark Heart's side.

Dark Heart took a deep breath, pushed himself to sitting position, then wobblingly stood. "Much better – thank you. I'm again in your debt." He paused and then glanced to the side. "And thank you, No Heart."

"Hmph!" No Heart answered.

"No Heart and Dark Heart?! Are you sure this is a good idea?" Songfellow came forward and glared suspiciously at the purple-robed twin.

"Dark Heart is an ally of ours, and we'll vouch for him," True Heart told Songfellow.

"Yeah . . ." Dark Heart finally realized he was wearing his hood again and promptly yanked it off, uncovering his unkempt red hair. "But, how do you know my name? I don't remember you . . ."

Songfellow's expression turned dark. "Many years ago, you two led an assault against our people, forcing us to flee to the outermost reaches of the magical realms."

"Me . . . I did?" Dark Heart ran a hand through his poofed-up hair, nervously trying to smooth it back down. "I . . . don't remember . . . I'm terribly sorry . . ."

"A strange pair of creatures is approaching." The third human, a woman with all her orange hair pulled up in a tight bun, reappeared unexpectedly from behind a building.

"Are they a threat?" Songfellow asked.

"See for yourself," the woman pointed.

A wobbly copter passed across the sky, then turned sharply and plummeted. Everyone rushed over to see, and they found the bike-copter had crashed in a thick bank of clouds, but the copter's crash had thrown its two passengers into an adjacent fountain.

"Oh, Beastly! You –!" Shrieky broke off coughing as she got hit in the face with a spray of water.

Beastly moaned. "Another perfect landing . . ." he babbled deliriously.

"Beastly? Shrieky!" Tender Heart rushed forward and vacillated over whether he should help the two villains out of the fountain. Finally, good manners won out, and he offered Shrieky his hand, which surprisingly she accepted.

Actually, she did not really seem to notice who had helped her because her eyes were darting over the gathering crowd. She suddenly leapt forward. "Uncle No Heart!" she sobbed shrilly as she grabbed the cowled man around the waist. "I'm sorry, Uncle No Heart! She asked me what you were doing, like she always does, so I told her about Dark Heart . . . I didn't know she was actually going to do something! She never did before! Before, I'd always tell her that you had a new, foolproof plan to trap the carebears, and she'd just nod and say, 'Fine – carry on,' like she didn't care what you did anyway . . ." She had to pause for breath.

No Heart pried her off his waist and glowered down at her. "You've been reporting to the Empress the entire time?"

"Of course – that was my job! When she sent me to live with you, she told me to help you out with your plans as much as I could – and to let her know every now and then what you were up to –"

"So, you were spying for her."

"No! I didn't mean to. I never told her about all the times the carebears beat you! I thought she might get mad, so I just told her about your newest plans."

"So, why did you tell her about Dark Heart?"

"Because she wanted to know why you would throw me out . . . And it's all his fault, isn't it?!" She pouted and made a face at Dark Heart, who had come up to stand just behind his twin.

"So, is this girl dangerous?" the black-haired human asked, standing behind Shrieky and patronizingly patting her on the head.

"Um . . . not at the moment, I guess," Tender Heart answered.

"Hm? What's this?" The black-haired man poked at Shrieky's ponytail, and pulled the elastic right out of her hair.

"Hey!" Her hair cascaded down around her shoulders, but as it did so, it changed to a very bright purple and entirely lost the streak of green. "I need that! Give it back right now, or I'm going to . . ."

"Aaah! We're surrounded by carebears!" Beastly finally regained his senses and distracted Shrieky just as she was taking a deep breath.

"What is that thing?!" the tall woman asked with some degree of revulsion. Songfellow just shrugged.

While they were momentarily distracted, Shrieky snatched the hair elastic away from the human, and fiercely tugged her hair back. For a moment, her ears appeared long and pointed like Dark Heart's – then the elastic's magic resumed, the ear points vanished, and the green hair streak reappeared.

"Why do you bother with that silly thing?" the black-haired man asked. "It's probably got the Dark Empress's curses all over it."

"No – she said it was to protect me! And, to make sure Uncle No Heart would recognize me."

No Heart raised his eyebrows. "Or, in other words, to make sure I would accept you with no questions asked."

"It worked just fine until he showed up!" Shrieky stuck her tongue out at Dark Heart, who just shrugged.

After rolling his eyes for good measure, No Heart addressed the strange humans. "And what are you doing here? I didn't know you," he glared specifically in the direction of Songfellow, "were openly a 'friend' of the carebears."

"We are friends to everyone." The dark-haired one drew himself up stiffly. "You may address me as Hale."

"And I am Mira," the woman added.

"And I don't care," said No Heart. "All I'm interested in is knowing why you have come here."

"We have come, o dark and shrouded one, to aid the carebears in this time of crisis." Songfellow fearlessly looked No Heart right in the eye. "We had noticed that a lot of the Empress's creatures, like you, are showing up in places where they shouldn't be. We came to see what was going on, and to help the carebears fix the problem."

Shrieky spoke up, haughtily displaying her knowledge. "The Empress said something about preparing to attack the magical creatures again. She was focusing on playing mind games with the humans before, and she let No Heart manage the rest. But now, for some reason, she thinks No Heart wasn't doing a thorough enough job."

"Yes, and we all know whose fault that is," No Heart hissed sideways at Shrieky.

Shrieky started bawling, loudly, and everyone winced and backed away. Even her sobs were painfully shrill.

"So, are we going to attack the Empress or what?" Dark Heart asked the group as soon as Shrieky's wails subsided somewhat. Songfellow and friends gave him incredulous looks, so Dark Heart continued, "Isn't that the logical thing to do? If she's the source of the problem, then why not try to stop her?"

"Well – we'd all love to stop her, of course . . . but how?" Tender Heart waved his brown arms for emphasis.

"We never found a good way to eliminate her creatures before," Songfellow admitted, stroking his brown beard. "But we recently discovered a sticky substance in one of the outermost realms that will turn whatever it touches to stone . . ."

"No." True Heart shook her white head emphatically. "That's too extreme for me to agree to. Even when used on evil creatures."

Hale stepped forward, expression twisted in annoyance. "Look, True Heart – don't you remember the destroyers from your youth? Don't you remember the creatures that chased your race all around the earth, splitting them up and destroying every place they tried to call home? Creatures like these," he indicated both Dark Heart and No Heart, "can't be trusted."

"Those times you were referring to were before Dark Heart. Everyone, please . . . Dark Heart was being used by the darkness – I'm sure that the Empress's other servants are the same – isn't there any way we could . . . free them all?" True Heart spread her hands apart and looked around into everyone's eyes.

"Maybe." Dark Heart stepped forward into the conversation. "As I recall, the Empress drains the goodness and caring from every creature she captures – but she can't use it or even touch it. Instead, she stores it all in a large tower somewhere in her stronghold."

"So . . . ?" Songfellow raised an eyebrow. His expression was neutral.

"I . . . think that if we release the energy she has taken, at least all the shadows will return to their original forms – and perhaps her other servants will be freed as well."

Mira sniffed. "If they're not working for her willingly."

Dark Heart shrugged. "Probably. I really don't know about any case but my own."

Noble Heart cleared his voice loudly and took charge. "So then . . . do we all agree that we will give Dark Heart's idea a try?"

No one responded at first, but after True Heart affirmed loudly, "Of course we will!" then Hugs and Tugs, and gradually many of the other carebears started quietly agreeing as well. Noble Heart nodded in approval.

"Alright, then. But we need a plan." Tender Heart said. He scratched one ear as he thought. "We could organize a small group try to sneak into the Empress's lair. But we will probably need to have a diversion to keep her attention divided . . ."

"I whole-heartedly agree. And whatever you decide, we will support you, carebears," Songfellow said as he fingered the brim of his white hat. He cast a pointed look at his two companions, who sighed, but then nodded as well. Songfellow continued smoothly, "So then, do you have any ideas, Tender Heart?"

"Well . . . actually . . ."


	6. A Rig of Bamboo

_I'm trying to fuss with the chapters less, so hopefully I can get the last few up faster. I really hope that doesn't mean I'm missing lots of glaring grammar and plot mistakes . . . please let me know if I have, okay?_

_Ugh, and I just caught one. I hate it when I don't notice for days -- or weeks -- that won't display some of the special characters I use for formatting. I've inserted scene breaks now -- hopefully they'll help make the chapter more readable. I'm so sorry. I'll double check the other chapters as soon as I have time._

_Don't copy part of the whole of this story without permission. All characters that did not appear in the original shows or movies are mine._

_And thanks again to those who leave reviews! I'm always happy to have suggestions for improvement, but I love compliments, too. It's always reassuring to a writer to know that someone else out in the world likes what you're writing._

**Darkest Hearts**

_by Maelstra_

Ch 6: A Rig of Bamboo

* * *

"This is utterly mad," No Heart hissed out of the corner of his mouth, too quietly for any of the carebears to hear. 

Dark Heart shrugged slightly. "You didn't have a better idea." He spoke a little louder because he was focusing on the path in front of him and did not want to turn around.

"And did we have to bring . . . them?"

He meant the carebears: Brave Heart Lion and Proud Heart Cat, Tender Heart Bear and Cheer Bear had volunteered to come along to attempt to sneak into the depths of the Empress's stronghold. They followed carefully down the steep canyon trail, keeping several paces behind the dark twins. The cliff walls and the trail itself seemed to be made of hardened ashes – any paw or hand that touched it came away coated with black. As far as the layout of the region went, it was like they were descending into a shadowed version of the Grand Canyon. The infiltrators could barely discern rickety, fog-wrapped shapes and spires that indicated the site of the Empress's home down in the nadir of the valley. Dark Heart and the others had already considered the possibility of just flying down – either in cloud cars, or else with No Heart and his brother carrying everyone else – but there was some risk that the Empress might be able to detect any magic used in the vicinity of her lair.

A dark shape flew past – it was only an ordinary, very lost bird, but Dark Heart still pulled his hood down to cover more of his face. Though the Empress would know him by sight, he was gambling her servants might not, so he was still trying to do his best to fit in with any creatures that might be lurking around.

Helping the carebears to fit in had been a bigger concern, obviously, but Songfellow and his friends had taken care of it. As Dark Heart had watched in awe, the strange humans had turned the four carebears' and cousins' fur a solid, charcoal gray; even their tummy symbols were swallowed up in the transformation. Dark Heart had been extremely curious about the magic involved, but the humans had dodged all his questions at the time. He was rather disappointed, because even though he knew he did not have the type of magic to transform anyone else, he wondered if those humans' powers might still be similar to his own . . .

While Dark Heart's mind wandered, he stepped too close to the edge and slipped. "A-ah . . ." He tried not to scream but had a horrible mental image of him sliding all the way down the canyon wall and crashing noisily into the front door of the Empress's palace.

Then, his robe suddenly choked him. His feet still flailed uselessly in space, but then abruptly he landed on his rear end on the ground.

No Heart's flaming, red eyes suddenly illuminated the interior of his hood. "Be more careful!" he growled, though still keeping his voice as low as possible.

"R-right . . ." Dark Heart took a deep breath in relief. "Thanks . . ."

No Heart grunted and moved ahead down the trail. Brave Heart and Cheer Bear helped Dark Heart back to his feet.

"Do you think the others are ready yet?" Cheer Bear whispered to Tender Heart.

"I don't know. Dark Heart, how far down do you think we should go right now?"

"Mh . . . No Heart?" he asked his brother.

No Heart flashed a glare in their direction out of principle, then focused his gaze down in the canyon. "I don't sense any activity yet. We are expecting there to be a major reaction once the . . . others are in place, correct?"

"Yeah . . ." Dark Heart reached into his hood and scratched his nose with the back of his red-gloved hand. "Let's go down two or three more switchbacks – until we find an alcove we can rest in – and then we'll just wait."

* * *

"Oh, goody goody gosh! This is so exciting!" Hugs squealed, clasping her paws. 

"You mean, this is crazy," Tugs corrected with a smirk as he plugged in another cord. "But I agree – it's going to be awesome."

"Everything set up there?" Noble Heart called from below.

"Yep! We've got it covered!" Hugs leaned over the walkway and waved. "Is the stage set up yet?"

"It's all done! We've got people starting to arrive now, so hurry down here and help people settle into their seats!"

"Right!" both twins answered, immediately scrambling down the ladder that led backstage.

Hale waved at the twins as they dashed by. Mira's attention was wholly occupied by the mirror as she considered her old-fashioned, lace-collared, button-front, burgundy dress. After the cubs ran by she grunted "eh!" and snapped her fingers. Her outfit was replaced by blue jeans and a loose, white shirt.

"Going with the cowboy theme?" Hale said.

"Yeah . . . We may as well match." Mira added a pink cowboy hat out of nowhere. "You?"

Hale disappeared in a soft poof of smoke and became a mean-looking, black stallion. "I'll be a mute part of the backdrop."

Mira tsked. "If Songfellow says you sing, you sing."

"But this is so silly . . ."

On the other side of the curtains, a youthful crowd cheered wildly. Songfellow Strum's voice echoed through the microphone: "Good afternoon, boys and girls!"

"That's our cue. Come on." Mira the cowgirl nudged the black horse through the curtain, then followed after, shoving aside the curtain and walking out onto the stage.

"Welcome to Songfellow Strum and Friends' Singalong!"

* * *

"Hey, look at that!" Brave Heart nudged Proud Heart. "Something's happening!" 

From the depths of the valley came a thin steam of dark shapes that shot up high into the sky and passed over the heads of the infiltrators. The canyon echoed with a eerie moan that seems to reach deep into one's bones . . . and then things again became silent.

"I can't believe that actually worked – she's sent a small group to investigate." No Heart spat in disgust, "It's just a singalong – how is that more of a threat than an army of carebears or the like?"

"I think that . . . it's part of how the Empress thinks," Dark Heart said softly. "A singalong can create exceptionally good feelings in a unusually large number of people – and so it irritates her more than something that might be an actual threat to her."

No Heart growled. "That makes no sense!"

"Sorry. I don't know how to explain it better."

Proud Cat flipped her tail impatiently. "Hurry, guys! We don't know how long she'll be distracted by the others!"

"Maybe she went to check it out personally?" Dark Heart suggested hopefully.

"Not likely." No Heart grabbed his brother's shoulder and pushed him into the lead of the group again. "Quit stalling and start walking!"

* * *

"And for my next song, I'll need another volunteer . . ." Songfellow surveyed his squealing crowd with a big smile. 

Shrieky, sitting on the front row next to Beastly, jumped in her seat and madly waved her hand in the air. "Oooh! Pick me! Pick me, Songfellow!"

"Well now . . . how about this little princess?" Songfellow said, raising his eyebrows. Shrieky suddenly appeared next to him on the stage in a small puff of gray smoke. Once she realized where she was, she nearly swooned in joy.

"Better her than me," Beastly muttered, crouching down in his seat in an attempt to present a low profile.

Songfellow clapped his hands, and Shrieky's costume changed to that of an Egyptian princess, adorned with heavy silver jewelry and a black wig. Then, the whole layout of the stage changed – with a jolt, Shrieky found herself sitting in an ornate throne, set high up in a tree. Songfellow appeared then, hovering in midair, and he called into his microphone, "Girls and boys . . . I give you . . . The Princess Pat!"

All the children and carebears in the audience applauded and cheered, and Songfellow began singing the song: "The Princess Pa-aaat - lived in a tree-eeee . . ."

* * *

The invasion force eyed the outer wall of the Empress's stronghold with dismay. Boulders larger than any one of them were piled in a great heap over forty feet high, and all around the bottom were spears, broken glass, and other less-identifiable sharp objects. 

"There must be a door," Brave Heart mused.

"The Empress and her shadows are not stopped by doors," No Heart reminded them unkindly.

Cheer Bear pondered this a moment. "What about her other servants? Not all of them are shadows, and not all can fly. Shrieky gets in somehow . . ."

"If we only dared use magic . . ." Dark Heart started.

"– We'd be caught in five minutes," No Heart growled.

"Do you want to do this or don't you?" Dark Heart snapped at his brother.

No Heart glowered. "This is madness, seeking out the Empress in her stronghold. We cannot possibly expect to succeed."

"Then why didn't you say so earlier?"

"You didn't ask for my input before!"

"Ssh!" All the carebears hushed the twins.

Tender Heart stepped in between Dark Heart and No Heart. "The Empress has been pretty apathetic toward most things going on around her, right? Maybe some parts of the wall have collapsed without her noticing."

Dark Heart brightened. "That sounds reasonable. Let's hurry, though. We only have about an hour of diversion left!"

* * *

"And let's all have a big hand of applause for our special helper, Mr. Hale!" 

Hale, in human form again, was wringing water out of his black ponytail and did not look up at either the audience or Songfellow.

Songfellow beamed at the audience and continued, "Miss Mira will sing our next song – but first, we need another volunteer!"

Dozens of people in the audience, including Shrieky again, waved their hands up high. Beastly simply clasped both hands over his ears.

"We need a nice . . . little doggy . . ." Songfellow surveyed the audience, noticed a dog carebear cousin, but passed him up for a different victim. He snapped his fingers, and Beastly appeared onstage. Beastly yelped once at the location change, then groaned as he noticed he had undergone some cosmetic changes as well: his ears hung floppily down to his shoulders, his nose had swollen to a round ball, and he had gained a three-foot tail.

"Isn't he the cutest doggie you've ever seen?" Songfellow asked, patting Beastly on the head. "So now, everyone . . ." Songfellow waved his arm and disappeared, and then Beastly appeared, alone, up in the window of a comical pet store. The singer's disembodied voice echoed, "How much is that doggie in the window?"

* * *

"You know . . ." Cheer Bear panted, "I wonder if Shrieky just made Beastly fly the helicopter in when she visited . . ." 

Dark Heart leaned against the canyon wall, tired as well as everyone else from jogging along the wall to seek any way to breach its defenses. Thus far, they had found nothing. No Heart just trailed leisurely after them, grumbling to himself the whole way.

"We should give up," he finally vocalized so all the others could hear.

"We can't." Dark Heart rounded on his brother, his fraying patience nearly snapping. "She's not going to ignore the carebears anymore – if we don't do something, she'll send all her forces against them and wipe them out!"

"And why should I care?"

"Well, I do! This matters to me! No one made you come along – I assumed that somewhere, deep down in your heart, you wanted to help out! If you don't want to help, then just leave and let us do this on our own!"

"You mean, let you fail on your own!" No Heart's eyes flared as he glared at his brother, but Dark Heart just met the gaze without flinching. In a puff of magic – startling everyone – No Heart changed shape into a dark, angry tornado. With no warning or explanation, he sucked everyone up into his whirlwind and floated up into the sky. Moments later, he hurled the five down onto a cobblestone road nearly a half mile into the Empress's city.

"You were taking too long," he told his dizzy companions once he had poofed back into his typical, cowled form.

"Nghnnn . . ." Dark Heart clutched his head in hopes of making the world hold still. "Thank you . . ." he managed to gasp out.

"We are down to minutes." No Heart unceremoniously grabbed Dark Heart's arm and yanked him to his feet. Though the carebears were struggling as well, he ignored them. "Do you have any idea where this . . . vault is?"

Dark Heart closed his eyes and massaged his head. He tried to recall both what Shrieky had told them before they had left Carealot, and also what his own fuzzy memories seemed to say. "It's at the deepest point in this valley – not a basement, but where the ground slopes down to its lowest."

"How close is it to where we are?"

"I don't know where we are – but it's just a little offset from the center point of this city."

No Heart shoved his brother to make him start walking, without waiting for the carebears. "You had better hope that it's on this side. This city looks to be ten miles long . . . and we are likely down to fifteen minutes."

The ground beneath their feet shuddered and the walls of the dead city seemed to groan. A large black mass of shadows filled the sky overhead. More of the horned wraiths oozed out of the walls and even the road, floating up to join their fellows. Crooning in a collective war cry, then rose up high into the sky and disappeared.

"I'd say your little friends are in for some trouble," No Heart observed conversationally.

"Songfellow seemed to think they could handle anything the Empress threw at them," Dark Heart countered, mostly trying to reassure himself. "Maybe this means we have a few more minutes?"

"Maybe."

They continued walking down the black, cobbled road, passing between rickety, peeling, black houses. The buildings appeared to have three or four floors, but age and neglect had made them start to collapse in on themselves, so many only achieved the height of two stories and a half. About every ten seconds, another of the Empress's shadows rose up out of the ground and floated off into a building or down a side street. Most just went on their merry way, but one noticed them. It crooned interrogatively.

"You don't see us!" Dark Heart declared, wiggling his fingers at the shadow.

The shadow looked puzzled, but obediently departed, responding to the command of the pendant No Heart had reluctantly relinquished back into Dark Heart's possession.

No Heart snorted in disdain. "That won't do us any good if we run into her other servants."

"Isn't that what we brought you for?"

"No, this is your risky plan, remember?"

A breeze whipped through the city. The wind grew in strength by the second until it knocked all the carebears over. They heard shrieks all around them – and gradually realized with foreboding that the noise was not coming from the wind . . .

* * *

"Thank you all for being such a wonderful audience . . .!" 

"Are we done?" Hale moaned to Mira.

"Nearly – keep that smile on your face."

". . . you will always be my friends . . .!"

A dark mass suddenly blocked the sunlight, throwing both the stage and audience into shadow. The audience gasped as dark shapes began diving down toward the stage.

Hale did not hesitate a moment – he shapechanged into a dark blue pterodactyl and leapt into the sky. With his magic, he created a large net, and as he flew past he trapped dozens of shadow creatures in it and pulled them away from the mass.

Mira focused on creating a strong wind, and once Hale came back for a second pass, most of the shadows were already scattered a hundred yards away from the stage.

Songfellow observed his companions' efforts from the corner of his eye, but kept his expression calm. "It's time for us to say goodbye for now, and I hope that we will meet again." He made a folk guitar appear out of nowhere, and he started up his final song, "You are my sunshi-iine, my only sunshi-iine, you make me happy-yy . . ."

Hale landed onstage beside Mira, and promptly shiftchanged back into a man with bushy black hair, dressed in blue.

"Ears?" Mira mouthed at him.

Hale started, then quickly changed his pointed ears into human-type ones. "Forgot . . ." he muttered.

"– Oh, please don't take . . . my sunshine away!"

The stage began growing increasingly bright and Songfellow disappeared from view. Mira and Hale crept backstage. A number of small clouds appeared around the stage, and each turned a brilliant color of sunset. Songfellow's voice continued to echo out of nowhere, "Oh, please don't ta-aake my sunshi-iine awa-aaay!"

As the song concluded, the audience burst into noisy applause, spiked with a few whistles. After a sufficient pause, Mira stepped out into view again, wearing a big smile plastered on her face. "Will the carebears and carebear cousins please see all their guests home in a safe and orderly manner? Thank you, everybody, for attending our singalong concert!"

The crowd cheered again, and most people began slowly exiting.

Hale grabbed Mira's arm. "Where's Songfellow gone to? It looks like the mass just sent off a few shadows to call for reinforcements."

"Don't worry – he's around. Just hold them off however you can." Mira shapechanged into a large, white eagle and took off.

True Heart hurried forward to catch Hale's attention. "We're ready to fight the shadows if need be. Let us know what we can do to help."

"Just get the humans out first. It seems our staging the concert within sight of No Heart's Castle was sufficient to raise the Empress's ire. So, we should expect nothing less than an all-out fight. Can you carebears really handle that?"

True Heart half-smiled. "We defeated Dark Heart, and we've been thwarting No Heart for years. All I can say for sure is that we're not afraid to try."

"Good. Get ready then. This may be a fight for our very lives."

"I just hope . . ." she murmured. After a pause, she finished, "I hope that this means the others can escape the Empress's attention."

* * *

A large, black, wolf-like creature leapt on Dark Heart's chest, knocking him to the ground. He tried to shapechange into something larger, but the only animal his panicked mind could think of was an elephant. This indeed made him larger than the monster – but much slower. The wolf-thing flipped its long, barb-tipped tail at Dark Heart's knees. Dark Heart stumbled as it connected, as the sting made his leg abruptly go totally numb. As he struck the wolf-thing aside with his trunk, he saw that the carebears were beset by two other, similar monsters. Cheer Bear tried to stare one of the monsters, with some effect, while Brave Heart bit the other creature's tail. Tender Heart and Proud Heart Cat were already unconscious, and as Dark Heart watched, the wolf-thing that Cheer Bear tried to stare squirmed out of range, and turned around to attack Brave Heart. 

Dark Heart shapeshifted again, taking the form of a red wolf. He tried to charge to Brave Heart's rescue, but the two other monsters jumped on him. Meanwhile, the third creature flicked its tail and sent out a burst of energy in the shape of a green bolo. The energy caught Brave Heart as though it were a real bolo, and he promptly fell over, unconscious.

Pinned as he was, Dark Heart could do nothing but watch. He felt the numbing tingle of another sting, and then another, and his vision started to fade into black. As his consciousness dissolved, a sudden panic spurred him into action once more. Dark Heart tried to get himself to change, in hopes of eliminating the poison's effects, but to his dismay found that he could not. He was too weak.

He tried to turn his head to see what had become of the others, but all he could see was one wolf-monster carrying off Tender Heart in the coil of its tail. His vision started blurring, but he thought he could see more of the monsters arriving, ears pricked in anticipation.

Dark Heart tried to stand up, but at least one creature still held him down – and he could not feel his limbs anyway. He tried to blink his vision clear, but the last thing he managed to see before he lost consciousness was No Heart, standing off to one side with his arms crossed, dispassionately surveying the scene before him.

The wolf-monsters howled triumphantly.

* * *

"On my count – three, two, one . . . stare!" 

True Heart led a trio of carebears in their attacks against the shadows of the Empress. Most of the other carebears were organized into similar groups, while the few others had opted to follow Hugs and Tugs's suggestion to fight with caring crystals. By the time the small party that had gone to fetch those crystals had returned, the battle was already well underway.

Most of their opponents were the typical shadows that had formerly been in No Heart's employ, and these really could not do anything more than drain a bit of a creature's energy, and perhaps ultimately render that creature unconscious. A few of the shadows, however, were of a much greater size and possessed greater powers. These almost exclusively went after Songfellow and his friends, and pursued them with such ferocity that True Heart had assigned two quartets of carebears to try to help them fight the shadows back.

Songfellow fought very deliberately and calmly, and his two companions, obviously less experienced in battle, kept looking to him to try to copy his moves. Songfellow summoned balls of light from thin air, and then hurled them with admirable accuracy to strike the larger shadows. However, the big shadows were only stunned for a moment; within seconds, they would be recovered and would fly up after Songfellow again for another attack.

Noble Heart directed his 'call' of caring at one of the larger shadows that was advancing on Mira, and once it backed away, he called up to Songfellow, "Isn't there anyway to defeat these things?"

Songfellow frowned slightly. "These are much stronger than normal. See? Even the smaller ones keep coming back for more."

"The smaller ones that get hit by caring crystals seem to be knocked out," Noble Heart pointed out.

"You saw before, didn't you, that the small shadows at least are really caring creatures who have had all their emotions drained from them? Caring crystals, in normal circumstances, should be strong enough to restore them to their original form."

Noble Heart inhaled sharply. "So, what's going on?"

"Dark Heart said the Empress cannot use the caring energy she gathers – however, I think he was wrong. She must have found some way to utilize it. And that means that his quest has now become of the utmost importance."

"So, do we just wait for him to succeed?" Good Luck Bear asked.

Songfellow had to take a moment to drive away another of the human-sized shadows. It fell to the ground, stunned, but only for a moment. Songfellow answered slowly, "We assumed before that he and his companions could succeed because the Empress's attention would be divided, and her power would be weak from so many years of disuse. I . . . think know that we might have made an error in our judgement."

"So, we should send reinforcements to the others right away." Noble Heart smacked his fist into his palm.

"We can't leave these shadows here," Mira protested.

"We'll have to use the sealing spell. Mira . . . could you please cast it?"

She nodded, slightly reluctantly. "Alright, then. Please, help me gather them all close together?"

Songfellow nodded in agreement, and motioned to Hale and the carebears. "Try to make a ring on the outside and drive them all inward. If they're unconscious, carry or push them closer in."

By shouts, the carebears passed the command along, and they started their efforts to drive the shadows by crystals or stares or calls.

"That's good enough!" Mira called. "Songfellow, Hale, please be careful!"

"We will!" Songfellow answered. "We'll see you very soon!"

"I hope so," Mira said softly with a weak smile. Then she closed her eyes and started casting the spell. The air around her shimmered a soft lavender. Slowly, the sphere of magic expanding outward, slowly stretching to encompass every one of the shadows, and many of the carebears as well. As last, the spell seemed to settle into place, looking very much like a large soap bubble. All the shadows inside the spell suddenly tottered, and then fell limply down onto the cloud. At Songfellow's beckoning, all the carebears within the spell came outside to join the others.

"What did she do?" Noble Heart asked, pointing to Mira who stood completely still in the center of the bubble, with her eyes still closed as though she had fallen asleep.

"The seal spell takes the caster's continual concentration. Mira will have to remain as she is as long as we need the spell in place. It's not so bad for her, really – it's very much like a deep sleep – and once we can find a way to drain these shadows' strength, we can return and awaken her."

"How long can she stay like that?" True Heart asked.

Hale answered stiffly. "Forever, if need be. In the distant past, we encountered a number of monsters from the Empress that all our magic and love combined could not defeat. At the last, the only way we could contain them was to have someone cast that spell."

"Wait – so does that mean those spellcasters are still holding their spells up today?" Bright Heart Raccoon said with wide eyes.

"Let's hope Mira doesn't have to wait that long," Hale grunted, glaring at some unspecified point up above their heads.

* * *

_This chapter was heavily inspired by the one episode with Songfellow Strum. If you haven't seen it, it involves him singing children's songs while changing himself and others into various shapes. No Heart made mention of this event earlier._

_If you were wondering, Hale and Mira are original; it just seemed like Songfellow wouldn't show up alone, so I gave him some buddies. There was actually a blond MC who showed up for 2 seconds at the beginning of the episode, but I didn't remember him until I watched the episode again. So, he gets a cameo later, just for fun._


	7. The Depths of Denial

_Yay, at last an update! We're getting close to the end now. I personally really, really like this chapter. It was so much fun to write. In fact, I think the whole rewrite was worth it just to get this one chapter. Anyway (now that I've hyped it up way too much – heh), I hope you enjoy._

_Don't copy part of the whole of this story without permission. All characters that did not appear in the original shows or movies are mine. And, have a nice day!_

**Darkest Hearts**

_by Maelstra_

Ch 7: The Depths of Denial

* * *

Dark Heart floundered in darkness – he did not know how long – but at last he managed to fully awaken. He realized he had somehow managed to shift back to semi-human form. 

No Heart's unsympathetic, red eyes glared down at him.

Instantly, Dark Heart's thoughts went to his friends. "Wh-where are the carebears?" he croaked, startled to find his throat so dry. He glanced around and saw that he and No Heart were alone, in the middle of a cobblestone square.

No Heart flashed his eyes. "Forget them, you fool – the Empress almost had you again!"

"You left them?"

"Of course I left them! Why shouldn't I?"

Considering No Heart's history, there really was no reason for Dark Heart to expect different behavior from him – but still . . . His frustration and anxiety for the others let him struggle up to sitting position, then begin attempting to stand. Dark Heart grabbed onto No Heart's robe to use as a ladder to pull himself up, one handhold at a time. Once he got one hand where No Heart's throat should be, he left it there, for effect. "The Empress will – ! She'll drain them, and then she'll just come after us anyway! Why didn't you help them, too?!"

"Why should I?! I don't even see why I should have dragged you to safety, except perhaps to save myself from having to watch any more of your pathetic flailing. After all, you have yet to prove yourself of any great worth to me."

"You don't understand at all! A person doesn't have to be useful to you in order to be worth saving! Caring for a person is excuse enough to go to any lengths to help them!" Dark Heart wrung No Heart's robe with both hands, frustrated to the point he was about to cry.

No Heart grunted and tried to push his brother away. "As I have told you several times now: I don't care about anybody. I am the lord of darkness and hate – and I don't suffer from any of those silly emotions that keep clouding up your judgement –"

"You – you . . . !" Dark Heart's face tensed up, and he suddenly grabbed ahold of No Heart's hood and yanked it clean off. As Dark Heart had guessed, underneath the hood was only a shadowy approximation of a head; the only distinct features on the whole gray mass were a pair of green eyebrows, and fearsome eyes. "The only reason you can say any of that is because shadows don't have a heart! If you were in a more human form, like me, then you'd understand!" A single tear finally slipped from one eye and ran down Dark Heart's cheek.

No Heart growled and furrowed his green eyebrows. Then – to Dark Heart's surprise – he poofed in a cloud of smoke, and the shadowy head became instead a human-like face topped with a mass of unkempt, green hair. Strange, black tattoos swirled across No Heart's cheeks. As his eyes suddenly flashed crimson again, so did all the black markings on his face. After a haughty pause, he growled, "So, is this what you wanted? Now I am like you – and now . . . I still don't understand your irrational attachment to those worthless, stickily sentimental carebears! If you have any sense at all, you'll forget about them and go back to wherever it is you call home."

Several more tears traced a path down Dark Heart's cheeks, collecting down at his chin without him noticing. He released No Heart's robe and took a deliberate step backwards. "Fine. Fine then. I'll go help them myself."

"You idiot – you couldn't defeat her creatures with help before – now you think you can do it yourself?" No Heart planted his hands on his hips and glowered at his twin.

Dark Heart said nothing. As he turned away, he wiped his face with his dangling, purple sleeve. Then, he began to shakily run along the black-stoned street, away from No Heart.

"You don't have a chance!" No Heart yelled at his retreating back. When he saw that Dark Heart did not slow at all, passing through an archway out of sight, No Heart bellowed in exasperation and kicked a nearby stone wall to take out his frustration. His solid foot – which he was not accustomed to possessing – hurt from its collision with the unyielding wall, and the whole experience only served to infuriate him further. He roared and vented his irritation to the sky, but soon gave it up because he found it strangely unsatisfying to display his anger when there was no one else around to witness it.

He did not think for a minute that Dark Heart would succeed in what he had set out to do. The only possible outcome to all this was that Dark Heart would also be captured by the beasts, and they would carry the deluded boy straight to the Empress. And then . . . who could guess what the Empress might choose to do one who had defied her already before? But in the end, however soon that end would come, Dark Heart would be drained of his emotions and energy, and he would cease to exist as anything but a half-witted shadow. Again. No Heart wondered why he was concerned so much other this creature's – his twin brother's – end. Trying to distract himself, No Heart started walking, and haphazardly chose a side alleyway that took him perpendicular to the way Dark Heart had run off.

_I'm still thinking about him! Why?!_ No Heart stomped down a stone staircase which led in turn to a narrower alley framed by buildings that seemed slightly sturdier than most. He trailed his gloved hands against the walls as he descended, and scraped off long strips of the dry paint. _After all I went through to change him back from a shadow the first time – and he's just throwing my efforts away! Does he think I'll simply forgive him and rescue him yet again? _Then No Heart recalled that Dark Heart still had the magical pendant; if the Empress caught him with it, then she would certainly keep it. But regardless, even if No Heart could obtain the pendant, without aid like he had from the carebears before, he would never be able to restore Dark Heart from degenerate shadow form again.

No Heart spat in frustration and continued his tromping through the narrow alleyways. _So, Dark Heart and the pendant are both lost. I have no reason to stay here – but then, what reason did I have to be here in the first place? _No Heart searched for any answer besides 'Dark Heart asked me to,' but soon gave up in defeat and redirected his thoughts to a different subject. _So, now what shall I do? Can I return to my castle and pretend none of this ever happened? Can I return to daily plotting to overthrow the carebears, pretend my so-called niece and assistant aren't really spying on me, and pretend I don't really have an insanely altruistic twin brother?_

The alley that No Heart had been followed suddenly ended in a black, wooden fence. No Heart was not in the mood to have his ruminations interrupted, so he gathered a bolt of purple magic around his hands and hurled it all the offensive obstacle. The wall disintegrated in a satisfying explosion. Once the dust settled, No Heart continued on his way. A few of the Empress's shadows came to investigate the cause of the explosion, and No Heart flashed his eyes and growled at them. The shadows acknowledged him as another of the Empress's servants, and flitted away.

The road beyond the hole expanded out to cover a huge area, large enough to hold the whole of No Heart's castle. No Heart kept trudging straight and descended sharply with the slope of the path. The road gradually narrowed back down to just a tiny alley way flanked by splintery structures, then leveled off and ended in a circle that contained an undamaged, polygonal building that was much taller than, and very different in form from, everything else in this ghost city.

No Heart could instantly feel the thrum of power contained inside, without even touching the structure. "The vault," he whispered, transfixed by the sight of it. "Here it is, after all." He began walking a slow circuit around it, studying the smooth walls for any sign of an aperture. "But how to make it open? I don't see how the pendant could be of any use here . . ."

In the distance, No Heart heard a shout which sounded much like Dark Heart. _I see. So now they've caught him._ He tried to return his attention to the vault, but could not. He tried to shove all thought of Dark Heart from his mind, but failed. A strange tenseness grabbed his chest and refused to leave. _What is this? Surely this can't be . . . a feeling?_ No Heart scowled, realizing that his twin must have been correct in that this, his natural form, was capable of feeling emotions. "Well, I can easily correct that." No Heart shapechanged back into his shadow form, with his dark cowl properly in place. The sensation in his chest vanished. "Much, much better," No Heart purred.

But something still tugged his attention back in the direction of the shout. No Heart swatted it down, but it would not go away. _No . . . I don't have a heart! I don't care!_ But, no matter how he denied it, the feeling was still there, faint but indefatigable. Though his rational mind rejected it, some part of him rebelled at the thought of abandoning Dark Heart. No Heart tried to squirm away and rationalize, but at the same time wondered why he was trying so hard to do so. _Who cares what I do, after all? Who cares whether or not I help Dark Heart?_ The Empress would object of course, but why should No Heart serve her anyway?

Another cry from behind suddenly jolted his memory. No Heart now recalled another of the memories that had intially haunted him when those pesky carebears had first attacked him with caring crystals. Sometime in the far distant past, he had ben flying, soaring freely in hawk form through the skies. Then, he had heard a distant scream of terror, and had flown with all possible haste to check it out. Between two black clouds, he found a gigantic spider's web, and tangled up in the center of the web, obviously unconscious, was a red-haired figure who had seemed strangely familiar to him. Now No Heart realized that it must have been Dark Heart.

No Heart remembered how he had hurried to his twin's side, and shapechanged into his normal form so he could use his hands to rip the spider's silk away. But, as soon as Dark Heart was free, he had suddenly awakened and turned on No Heart. With heartless, red eyes, Dark Heart had overpowered his brother and tied him up in the spider's web. Then, while No Heart was still reeling from this heart-breaking betrayal, the Empress had arrived . . .

His emotions overwhelmed him. No Heart gave up trying to either make sense of them or suppress them. Instead, he shapechanged into a giant, green and purple vulture, and sped through the air in the direction he thought Dark Heart was. The dilapidated, black buildings dominated his vision, but at last he glimpsed several of the wolf monsters clustering around a smaller building. No Heart dove down and swooped through the pack of wolf-things, scattering them. A couple of them snarled and turned to attack, but No Heart struck each with a quick burst of red lightning. Collectively whimpering, all the creatures ran away and hid behind the relative safety of other buildings.

No Heart landed on the ground, instantly becoming a cowled shadow. He looked all around the clearing, and even peered into the broken windows and doorframes, but could see no sign of life. Then he heard a creature which growled, then yelped loudly in surprise. No Heart rushed around the building, then stopped cold at the sight of a monster wolf being set on by numerous, small shadows. The shadows hit the monster with their little fists, tugged at its fur and tail – finally the wolf-thing had enough of trying to bite the intangible creatures and, with a contrite whimper, it ran away. The shadows meanwhile crooned in triumph and floated together in a clump, awaiting further orders. Then Dark Heart, in the form of a red tarantula with the shadow-controlling pendant displayed obviously around his neck, finally scuttled into view.

"Very impressive strategy," No Heart commended his twin while raising an eyebrow at the amiably obedient shadows.

Dark Heart noticed him, sighed, then poofed into his favorite, near-human form. "What do you want now? Did you come to remind me again how I'm doomed to fail?"

"No . . ." No Heart grasped for a reason that did not involve confessing any feelings. "Actually . . . I came to tell you I found the vault."

Dark Heart's face lost most of its tension. "Really? Is it close?"

"Fairly. It's only a minute or so away by flight."

"That's good." Dark Heart finger-combed his red hair as he thought. "But, first I still need to . . . You know, since you're here . . . Could you stand out here, looking sinister and threatening, for a few minutes?"

No Heart narrowed his crimson eyes. "Yes, I suppose I can distract any monsters. But why?"

"I just need a minute . . ." Dark Heart immediately turned away and climbed through a ruined wall of a nearby building, then crouched to look down into a large hole in the floor.

No Heart despised having his questions ignored, but just then three burly wolf monsters arrived. Although the idea of first demanding the answer to his question in exchange for fending off the monsters occurred to him, he decided to save his breath and attack the creatures first. Dark Heart was such a goody-goody, after all, that No Heart could probably easily pry the information from him later. So, taking the shape of a purple storm cloud, No Heart bellowed at the wolf monsters: "Begone!!" For good measure, he hurled several lightning bolts at them as well.

The monsters fled for their lives. Satisfied, No Heart smugly swelled into a larger cloud, and floated up higher for a better vantage point.

Meanwhile, Dark Heart grasped the pendant and used it to create a dim light to illuminate the deep hole. Masses of shadows swarmed below, blocking his view of the very bottom. But, he was certain he saw a glimpse of a solid form or two. In a loud whisper, he said, "Shadows, obey me! Lift up everything at the bottom of the hole and bring it here!"

Compelled by the command of one bearing the pendant, the shadows complied. Intangible as they were, lifting objects was quite difficult – but not completely impossible if they combined their efforts. To Dark Heart's relief, a mass of forty shadows or more soon brought up the first, unconscious figure. Only once all the gray creatures retreated could Dark Heart even identify the figure as Tender Heart. A moment later, another swarm of shadows lifted Brave Heart. Cheer Bear soon followed, and finally Proud Heart Cat was also rescued from the pit.

"Well done," Dark Heart said in a low voice. He studied his friends with some concern, noting their unnatural paleness. In fact, they almost seemed faintly translucent. "What has happened to them?"

A shadow floated forward and answered his question. Through holding onto the pendant, Dark Heart could understand its meaning to be that their prolonged stay to the dark energy present in the pit, and exposure to the shadows, had drained much of their caring energy.

"Is there any cure?" Dark Heart hissed, irritated, trying to calculate how he could proceed to the vault, but still protect his carebear friends.

The shadow crooned a vague answer; nothing in the city could help them, unsurprisingly, since such a thing would go directly against the Empress's power.

"What are you doing in there, anyway?" No Heart demanded. He shapeshifted into a dark green and purple wolf, and poked his head inside. "Oh. I should have guessed."

"I'm not leaving them," Dark Heart said firmly. He was aware that he was starting to sound very repetitive. Seeing the disapproval on No Heart's face, he reiterated, "Empress or not, I won't abandon them to the darkness."

"So, what are you going to do with them?" No Heart snorted. "Carry them to the vault?"

"Why not? So now, dearest brother – are you going to watch me struggle, or are you going to get into that tornado form of yours and help?"

"Keep all your syrupy appellations to yourself, and I might consider it."

"Fine. Grouchy, cranky, evil brother, will you please help me carry my friends?"

No Heart flared his eyes and hissed. "Oh, just drop it already."

The building exploded, scattering debris throughout the streets. A dark tornado rose from the rubble and started flying across the rooftops. Only a moment later, a blood red falcon took to the air and followed closely after.

* * *

Meanwhile, up in the dark skies over the shadowed canyon of the Shadow Empress, a lone storm cloud drifted placidly along. It moved rather quickly for such a cloud, and it followed an erratic course; after floating over directly over the center of the city, it suddenly dropped several hundred feet lower and hung still in the air for several minutes. 

Songfellow's voice whispered from the cloud, "The place is swarming with shadow creatures, but I can't sense the Empress at all."

True Heart's voice emanated from the cloud in an equally soft whisper, "So, where is she? What is she doing? Does she think she already defeated us?"

"Not likely," Songfellow answered. The cloud floated up a hundred feet higher, then began moving toward the Northern edge of the canyon. "She never gave up easily before. I wonder if the silence below means she's caught the others."

A number of other voices within the cloud gasped. Silence descended and prevailed for a long, tense moment. Finally, Noble Heart spoke up from within the cloud. "So, how soon will Hale be down here with reinforcements?"

"I don't know. Because of the Empress's attacks in the past, our people had to move far, far away. Besides that, he may have trouble convincing them to come out to face the Empress again."

"But we can't just do nothing," Hugs protested. "What if Dark Heart needs our help?"

"Can you find him, Mr. Songfellow?" Tugs added.

After a pause, Songfellow said, "I sense a magical disturbance just below us. I cannot tell if it is our friends or not. Shall we go take a look?"

"I say yes," Noble Heart affirmed. "Let's leave a few of us to wait outside the city, to tell Hale where we've gone – the rest of us will go see what's brewing done there."

"Very well," Songfellow agreed amiably. The dark cloud drifted fairly quickly over to one of the canyon walls, and descended until it was just a few yards above the sooty earth. The cloud disappeared into a dozen little puffs of smoke, and all the carebears appeared on the dark ground. A cluster of sparkles then congealed into Songfellow Strum. He still had his battered cowboy hat, but he had finally dispensed with the illusion of being human, and the tips of his pointed ears brushed almost up against the brim of his hat. "I'll disguise everyone, just to be safe – but you need to tell me who's going."

"Hugs and Tugs need to stay here," True Heart said. She fended off their protestations with a firm glance. "It's too dangerous. Besides, we need someone reliable to tell Hale what to do once he gets here."

"Aw . . . Oh . . . Fine." Tugs looked sullenly to his sister, and she sighed and shrugged in acquiescence.

"Um . . . I'll stay, too," said Treat Heart Pig after glancing down at the black city and shuddering.

Loyal Heart Dog smiled weakly at her in sympathy. "And I'll stay. Is that enough of us?"

True Heart and Noble Heart took inventory of the others: Friend Bear, Secret Bear, Wish Bear, Good Luck Bear, Playful Heart Monkey, and Swift Heart Rabbit. "Are you all willing to go?" True Heart asked.

All in question affirmed that they were ready, so Songfellow clapped his hands and rubbed them together. "Hm . . . now, let's see . . ."

There was an enormous burst of smoke. When it cleared, there was only one tall, spindly shadow surrounded by a dozen short, fuzzy shadows. "Not bad, eh? What do you think?" the tall shadow asked.

"Will this really fool the Empress and her shadows?" one of the little shadows asked in Good Luck Bear's voice.

"Well . . . the shadows, yes – I think. The Empress . . . well, we should probably try not to get close enough to her to test it out, okay?" Songfellow paused and stared off into the distance. "That spell is getting stronger – and it's growing really fast."

"Let's hurry then," True Heart said. "Be careful," she told the crew who was intending to wait.

"You, too," the Treat Heart shadow said. She waved as Songfellow gathered everyone up into a cloud again, and continued waving until they dropped completely out of sight into the dark valley.

* * *

No Heart the tornado dropped his unconscious passengers somewhat ungently on the flat top of the Vault of Shadows. Dark Heart meanwhile swooped straight down to the ground and landed beside the large, polygonal structure. 

"Yes . . . this is it, alright." He poofed into his natural form and placed on hand tentatively on its smooth, glossy gray surface. "But now, how . . . ?" After scratching his head, he removed the pendant from around his neck and pressed it against the surface of the vault. Nothing happened.

No Heart floated down from the building in his shadow form and stood a few paces away, watching his brother with his arms crossed. "Well, brother, what's your plan now?"

Ignoring the mocking tone of the question, Dark Heart answered lightly, "I don't know. Say, No Heart . . . ? How did you activate the power of the pendant before, to restore me?"

No Heart paused. Then he said, brusquely, "I just stuck it on you forehead and turned it. It glowed red."

"Hmm." Dark Heart started walking around the vault, tracing a finger along the surface as he moved. "Well, it seems that won't work here. Can you see any sort of opening? A door, a window . . . even a divot in the wall?"

"Tch. I haven't noticed anything. I think this is a waste of time. After all, why would the Empress give you an artifact that had the power to destroy her vault?"

"Probably because she knew you'd be too pessimistic to try anything?" Dark Heart quipped, smirking.

No Heart glared, then commented, "Yes, but she didn't give it to me, did she? She gave it to you – and mightn't she have guessed that you'd turn against her?"

"Would she have?" Dark Heart echoed. "I mean really, do you think so? I can't remember back then very well . . ." He turned to face his twin. "Do you remember anything from the past? Such as how we ended up as the Empress's servants?"

No Heart hesitated. He felt the same, accursed feelings welling up again. Using all his concentration, he tried to squelch them back down again. In the process, his brow furrowed and his eyes glinted an evil red.

"Um, you don't have to hurt yourself trying to remember, No Heart." Dark Heart strode over and placed a comforting hand on his twin's shoulder.

No Heart automatically swatted said hand away. "I'm not trying to remember, I'm . . . oh . . . never mind. Yes, I remembered a little bit. The Empress caught you first – I'm not sure how – and then she captured me by using you as a decoy."

"Oh." Dark Heart's eyes widened and he took a step backwards. "I . . . I didn't . . . I'm sorry, No Heart!"

"Grgh – don't go all emotional on me!" No Heart flinched and backed further away. "It's not as if you even had a choice at that point – she had already wrapped you up in her mind control."

"But still . . . you're only trapped like this – a slave to darkness – because I was too weak to escape on my own . . . I'm so terribly sorry . . ." Dark Heart let his voice trail off, and he moved to lean heavily against the vault, as though he no longer possessed the strength to stand upright.

No Heart's eyes flashed. "I should not have said anything. Stop that already!"

"Stop what?" Dark Heart asked, his voice tragic.

The irritating feelings within No Heart's soul were increasing in direct proportion to Dark Heart's angst. Within his heart, the impulse to try to comfort his twin waged a fierce war with the impulse to run as far away from Dark Heart as he could manage. No Heart tried to sort things out and make a logical choice, but his thoughts only became more confused. _Why would I run away from Dark Heart? I'm certainly not afraid of him. Why, he's a threat to nobody but himself!_ Seeing that Dark Heart was ignoring his order, No Heart impulsively shapechanged into the one form he knew Dark Heart would respect. His cowl drooped low over his now-solid head, so he pushed it back away from his eyes. "Stop making me feel. I don't know how you do it, but I don't like it!"

"I . . . make you feel?" Dark Heart repeated.

"Yes!" No Heart growled, irritated that Dark Heart was obviously not completely grasping the seriousness of this problem. "You did it before, too! Originally we were perfectly loyal, totally brainwashed servants of the Empress – she kept us apart for a long time after she captured us – but then, as soon as I saw you, I started remembering the past – our past. She was suspicious even then . . ."

"Hey . . . I do remember that. Yes . . . she brought both of us together for the first time after she caught us – some dark, moldy reception hall, wasn't it? – and she wanted to give us both our first assignments. I didn't remember you, but you recognized me immediately and made me remember . . ." Dark Heart started to grin faintly.

No Heart, also caught up in the same memory, had forgotten his rage of just a moment ago. Under the shadow of his hood, his facial expression was almost peaceful, almost overpowering the tattoos and the red eyes that marked his as an enspelled slave. "Dark Heart . . . why does it hurt me so much to remember . . . and to feel?"

Dark Heart was thrilled to see this change in manner in No Heart, but he tried to keep his enthusiasm hidden so as to not repulse his twin. "It's her spell, No Heart. When it was strong, I didn't notice it. But, when it was close to breaking . . . it hurt. When I thought I was losing someone who had become important to me, I felt real pain. I realized then that the pain was from the spell and the things it made me do . . . and I decided I didn't want to be controlled by it anymore. I broke the spell, all by myself, because I wanted to. And I think you could break it by yourself, too, No Heart – you always were stronger than me," Dark Heart started rushing with his words, unable to fully check his emotions.

No Heart stared at him. His mouth moved, but he vocalized no words. At last he turned away and looked up at the sky. "Someone's coming." With hardly a pause, he transformed into a tornado and whirled up for a closer look.

"Arrgh!!" Dark Heart smacked a fist into the vault wall. After a moment of cursing his overexuberance, he poofed into a red hawk and flew up into the sky, after his brother.


	8. Unspeakables

_Next chapter! As always, please let me know if you catch any mistakes or bizarre typos. _

_Don't copy part of the whole of this story without permission. All characters that did not appear in the original shows or movies are mine. Enjoy!_

**Darkest Hearts**

_by Maelstra_

Ch 8: Unspeakables

* * *

"Hey, it's them!" a voice exclaimed from above. 

Dark Heart was momentarily puzzled by the sight of a black cloud dragging along several shadows in tethered harnesses, but after a moment he realized that he recognized the voices. No Heart circled them suspiciously, but eventually everyone landed on the roof of the vault to sort things out.

The cloud changed back into Hale, and he eyed at the shadows with some hesitation. "I'm not certain I can duplicate the disguise Songfellow gave you, so I'd better leave you as you are for now."

"That's alright," said the Tugs shadow, bouncing and floating around. "This is fun. Whee!"

Hugs rolled her eyes at her brother, and yanked him to a stop by grabbing his shadowy tail.

The other two shadow-carebears noticed the sleeping carebears who were still lying on the roof, just as No Heart had left them. "Oh no! What happened?"

Dark Heart sighed. "They were exposed to the Empress's shadows for too long. I didn't know what to do for them . . . but maybe you can help?"

The Treat Heart and Loyal Heart shadows looked at each other. By unspoken communication, they decided to try using their 'calls' to help the others. Both concentrated, and even though their tummy symbols were presently hidden, they nevertheless generated a small burst of energy that surrounded the others.

"Come on, Tugs, let's help!" Without another word, the twin cubs added in their efforts as well.

Once the light from the caring energy receded, the gray carebears started to regain their normal color.

"It worked!" Dark Heart whispered, greatly relieved. "We're so lucky we ran into you guys!"

"Hey . . . speaking of luck," Loyal Heart began. "Where's Good Luck Bear and Songfellow, and all the others? I thought they went looking for you guys."

"Huh? We haven't seen them." Dark Heart glanced to No Heart for confirmation, and No Heart simply shook his cowled head. "Where could they have gone?"

"Songfellow said he sensed a disturbance nearby, so he took the others to go check it out. We assumed it was you," Treat Heart said.

Dark Heart stiffened. "Uh oh."

No Heart sniffed. "Well, this would explain why we have encountered relatively little opposition from the Empress thus far. Obviously, she is presently occupied with a major spell or summoning, and thus can't be bothered with crushing us personally."

"So now, the others are probably in trouble," Dark Heart concluded. "Just great. Are there any other reinforcements on the way?"

Hale shifted uncomfortably. "Well . . . Floyd and a couple others said they'd come. The rest kind of panicked when I said we needed to confront the Empress at her full strength, within her stronghold."

"I can't imagine why," No Heart said, oozing sarcasm.

"Anyway, we can't just do nothing." Dark Heart threw No Heart a sideways glare, then addressed Hale. "The tower we're standing on is where the Empress stores all the caring energy she drains. If we can just figure out a way to crack it open . . ."

"Then the Empress's servants will abandon her and she'll be left completely helpless?" Hale did not sound very convinced.

"Well . . . that's what I'm hoping, anyway. Any ideas?"

"Hmm." Hale walked to the edge of the roof and looked down, then he bent over and scratched the surface of the tower with his fingertips. "Have you had the cowled one try to blow it up with his dark magic?"

"No . . ." Dark Heart looked to No Heart hopefully.

He shook his head. "Do you really think that she would make the vault of a substance that one of her servants could destroy?"

"You're such a pessimist!" Dark Heart complained. "Do you really believe that she could think of everything? As I recall, she was always preoccupied with her latest whims, and tended to neglect everything else."

No Heart just glowered at his twin, unmoving.

Dark Heart rubbed a hand over his face. "Please, will you just try?"

"Stop asking so nicely," No Heart grunted reflexively. But then, he actually did spread his arms wide apart and being summoning a great ball of purple lightning.

"Should we still be standing here?!" Treat Heart squawked. But by then it was too late for anyone to move. No Heart released his lightning bolt, and it struck the center of the tower. Everyone was thrown backwards. Hugs and Tugs were knocked off the tower, but in their shadow shape they could float to safety. The crack of the energy deafening all momentarily, and a cloud of dust exploded from the tower.

After a moment, once everyone finally dared to open their eyes, they saw the vault looked much the same as before. The only change was that now there was a smoking, hand-deep divot in the center of the roof. Everyone slowly moved closer to look down at the slight indentation.

No Heart spoke first. "I think this proves that the Empress considered the possibility of her servants attacking her vault."

"I'm not giving up!" Dark Heart declared.

"You know, that's not being optimistic. That's being deluded, or even irrational . . ."

Hugs drew everyone's attention away from the arguing twins. "Look! They're waking up!" She hurried over beside Brave Heart Lion, who was indeed starting to stir. "How do you feel?"

As Brave Heart opened his eyes, all he could see was a dark shadow, very similar in appearance to the Empress's slaves. He yelped an attack cry and jumped to his feet.

"No no no – it's okay! It's just Songfellow's disguise," Treat Heart tried to reassure.

Proud Heart, Cheer, and Tender Heart started to wake up as well, and it took several minutes to reassure them all and explain what had been going on. In the meantime, Dark Heart and No Heart continued arguing. Hale pointedly ignored them, and he transformed into a raven to survey the entire tower. Once he finished his reconnaissance, he landed beside the carebears, and said to them (unnecessarily loudly), "I found a weak point in the wall."

Dark Heart stopped speaking midword. "Really? Where?"

"At the base of the tower. It might be the doorway; it's sealed only with dark energy instead of stone."

"So my power would do nothing to dislodge it," No Heart observed.

"Yes, yes," Hale waved dismissively. "But, I was thinking, maybe the carebears could break through it . . ."

All eight looked at each other. They simply nodded, then turned to Hale and smiled.

"We'll give it a try," Tender Heart said.

"As soon as you help us down," Cheer added after glancing over the edge of the roof.

Hale considered the situation a moment, then changed into a cloud and acted as a descending elevator for the carebears. Once all were down on solid ground, Hale returned to his normal, almost-human shape, and showed them to a darker stain on one face of the tower.

"Everyone ready?" Tender Heart asked. All nodded, so he said, "On my signal, then: one, two, three, stare!"

The carebears and carebear cousins projected their 'stare' or 'call' and struck the dark space dead on. No Heart, Hale, and Dark Heart just watched intently, unsure how to offer assistance. After a full minute, the black surface flickered, then wobbled like jello. At last, the hole exploded outward in a blast of green light. All the carebears fell backward, and those still in their normal form landed hard with an oomph.

For a moment, green flames flickered around the edge of the hole, but they soon faded away. Dark Heart dropped down onto his hands and knees and peered inside. The space would make a very tight squeeze for a carebear, and would be impossible for a human – or similar being – of his size to fit through.

Cha-kooooom!!!

All flinched, and looked fearfully up at the tower. They could not immediately see anything wrong, but after a moment, they noticed the big cloud of puce smoke rising into the sky, coming from some spot out of sight beyond the visible buildings.

"What was that?!" Dark Heart looked to either No Heart or Hale for an answer.

"A spell of summoning," No Heart answered simply. "A spell that powerful would have to be for something that has long, long slumbered."

Hale choked. "Not an Unspeakable?"

No Heart raised a bushy, green eyebrow. "Yes . . . I think I've heard them be called that. I've also heard them referred to as 'Nadir Beasts,' 'Ghouls of the Abyss,' 'The Dismals' . . ."

Neither Dark Heart nor the carebears had any clue what the others were talking about. However, they concluded it was bad. "Do you think the others are in trouble?" Tender Heart asked.

"Definitely," Hale snapped. He started fidgeting nervously.

"Can we do anything to help them?" Cheer pressed him.

Hale just shrugged weakly.

"What's an Unspeakable?" Dark Heart finally asked No Heart.

No Heart's eyes flickered in irritation. "Don't you remember our earliest assignments? We led armies of shadows and shadow monsters – but the first charge was always led by those who corrode everything they touch . . . ?"

"Oh! I remember now – they're the Yu'Ngeuht."

"Don't say that word aloud!" Hale wailed.

Dark Heart frowned and shook his head. "You can't summon one just be saying the name." Then, more softly, he said to No Heart, "Songfellow and the carebears wouldn't have a chance against one of those, would they?"

"Of course not."

". . . So, how can we destroy it?"

"Destroy it?!" No Heart staggered backwards. "Are you out of your mind?! Even I would not have the power to stand up to such a thing! They are sustained by drawing off of large concentrations of caring –!"

Dark Heart had an epiphany. "No – I was wrong! – the Empress can utilize the energy she collects! That's how she summoned that creature here! See – I knew it! – all we have to do is release the caring energy from the vault, and everything will go back to normal!" He immediately disappeared into a poof of red smoke, and then scuttled into the hole in the shape of a tarantula.

"You're crazy!" No Heart glowered at the hole, then suddenly turned to could glare at Hale and the others. "Well, what are you standing around for? Go distract the Empress so she doesn't figure out what he's planning!" Then No Heart changed into a purple and green rat and scampered into the hole.

"Well . . . he's right. We'd better go," Tender Heart said. "Are you ready, Hale?"

Hale whimpered softly, then fell over in a faint.

* * *

"And we'll just place some of this debris over the top of him so the shadows can't find him . . . see?" 

"Yeah, I guess that'll work." Tender Heart carefully maneuvered a large piece of wallboard to obscure the psuedo-human's face. "Poor Hale. I hope he'll be alright."

"Eh, he's just under too much stress," Brave Heart declared dismissively. "Now, let's hurry! The others need our help!"

He and Tender Heart, Cheer Bear, and Proud Heart (followed by the four still disguised as shadows) quickly ran or floated in the general direction of the explosion. A few wisps of smoke lingered in the air above to guide them to the source.

Brave Heart ended up in the lead, and he chose an unpredictable path, arbitrarily weaving through the blackened husks of buildings. Finally, as he rounded a corner, he skidded to a stop.

The buildings in the area beyond that point had been pulverized, reduced to piles of splinters. A mist of grimy smoke rose from select points on the ground and on the shattered wood. Slowly, a mass of black sludge rose up out of the debris; the smoke clung thickly to this blob. Then the black mass descended and struck the cobblestoned road. Instantly, the ground shook and cracked, and that portion of street started to steam as well. Another blob, identical to the first, rose up and crashed down as well. Between the two shapes, an enormous mountain of black goo slowly lifted up, rising higher and higher until it towered over all the buildings that still stood.

"Sc-scatter!" Brave Heart gasped, then bolted to the left under his own advice.

The slimy monster shot out a dark tentacle, lightning-fast, just barely missing Brave Heart who conveniently tripped at precisely that moment. The tentacle slowly seeped into the wall it had struck, and then with a loud crack, the wall splintered and fell apart. The creature drew back its tentacle and turned around, hissing like a rush of steam escaping from a boiling pot.

Songfellow battered the monster with a burst of rainbowy energy that he hurled at it like a baseball. Several carebears in shadow disguise gathered around him and tried to help by staring the creature, but it only grew larger. Then another tentacle shot out, mostly missing Songfellow but directly hitting a carebear. Whichever bear it was immediately disappeared, and a ripple went up the tentacle as though it were swallowing something. Songfellow tried to shift forms to get away, but even as a cloud, the monster's appendage still somehow held him pinned. A giant crocodile then scuttled out from between a gap in the buildings, and it clamped its jaws down on the black, oozy arm.

The Unspeakable roared in pain and fury, the sound echoing through the ruined city. The end of the tentacle dissolved enough that Songfellow could finally slip free. Hugs and Tugs quickly floated over to see if he was alright.

Meanwhile, the crocodile wriggled around, doing its best to spit out the mouthful it had just taken. After a moment, it shapechanged into a blond human who immediately began coughing and making strange faces. "Ugh! I'm not trying that again! That tasted vile!"

Songfellow returned to his human-like form and sank heavily to the ground. "Thanks, Floyd," he said weakly. Then, he glanced down at his leg. The portion that had been touched by the tentacle was now completely black.

The monster burbled angrily and drew itself up higher.

"Thanks nothing, we've got to get out of here!" Floyd hurried over, and with Hugs' and Tugs' help got Songfellow back up on his feet.

"We can't just run away. It will surely follow us." Songfellow pushed away from them and shapechanged into a large, scruffy dog. "It poisoned me – I can't go far. Look, Floyd: get all the carebears, and the others who came with you, and go try to attack the Empress; if you can distract her enough, maybe the monster will fall back asleep." He hobbled toward the monster, holding his back right paw off the ground.

"What's he doing?" Tugs asked, concerned.

Floyd swiftly threw an arm around each of the shadowy cubs. "Come with me, this way!" He guided them into the alleyway he had just emerged from.

Behind them they heard the Unspeakable throw out another tentacle arm which hit the ground and debris with a thick crunch. Hugs and Tugs tried to turn to look back, but Floyd pushed them onward until they reached a spot behind the buildings, where the monster was well out of sight.

Floyd bent down until he was at eye level with the shadowy twin bears. "My friends, I need you to go around this outer line of buildings that are still standing, and gather everyone you can find. You see that taller, thin building over there? Yes, that one. That's where the Empress is watching. Bring everybody there, okay? I'm counting on you two . . ."

"Don't worry, Mr. Floyd!"

"We won't let you down!"

He waited until the twin bears left, then shapechanged into a silvery wolf and crept back down the alley.

* * *

The tunnel that led into the vault was noticeably longer than the vault itself. Dark Heart stumbled slightly and shapechanged into a weasel. Only a minute later, he slowed to a stop and became a red-tinted mouse. 

"What is the problem?!" No Heart growled. "Aren't you supposed to be in a hurry?"

"I don't feel well," Dark Heart whispered. Then he deliberately shapechanged into a reddish ground squirrel and put all his strength into sprinting. Moments later, they finally reached the end of the tunnel and entered the cavity of the vault.

While the tunnel had been mostly dark, this space was brilliantly illuminated. The entire cavity was twice as large as the vault had appeared outside, and it was full of tiny shards that each shimmered with a pure light. The effect was both extremely beautiful, and rather eerie as Dark Heart realized that each glass-like fragment likely represented a creature or person the Empress had drained. He changed into human-like shape, and shakily stood up. This small motion made enough breeze to set all the crystals drifting and rotating throughout the space. Dark Heart reached out to touch one of the lower shards, but it just floated straight through his hand, unchanged.

"What's that in the center?" No Heart asked, his voice impatient.

Dark Heart squinted through the shifting mass of crystals. He took several slow steps closer to the indicated object, and tilted back his head to try to see it. "It looks like another crystal – but it's larger than the others – and not pure white, either. Do you think that one controls the rest?"

"Considering the fact that all the others are revolving around it, I would say yes." No Heart shapechanged into his cowled, shadow form and folded his arms. "So, are you going to get up there and try the pendant on it or not?"

Dark Heart continued staring at the center crystal for a moment. Finally, he shook himself out of the trance and looked over at his brother. "I'll need my hands, right? I don't know how to keep this form and still hover . . ."

No Heart tsked and floated over. He grabbed Dark Heart from behind around the waist, then used his magical power to levitate the both of them.

As they ascended, Dark Heart commented, "You're being very helpful, No Heart. Thank you."

No Heart flinched and their progress slowed for a second. "I just want you to hurry up and be done with this so that we can finally leave." After passing through hundreds of crystals, they finally came level with the palm-sized, golden-tinged shard that hovered in the precise center of the vault, about three dozen feet above the ground. "Don't waste any more time."

After a deep breath, Dark Heart withdrew the pendant from around his neck and placed it against the controlling shard. The red orb in the pendant lit up, and the pendant itself stuck to the floating crystal. At that moment, all the revolving crystals also froze in place. Dark Heart released his grip on the necklace and just looked blankly at it.

No Heart growled, puzzled why Dark Heart made no effort to move. "Now turn it!"

"R-right." He grabbed the metal triangle, and tried to twist it. The pendant would only turn counterclockwise. He turned it a quarter of a turn, then stopped, his arm suddenly shaking uncontrollably. After the spasm passed, he turned it a little more, almost halfway . . . then a fierce shiver ran through his whole body. "I-I'm . . . so tired . . . It's d-draining . . . me . . ." Without warning, Dark Heart's hand slipped off the pendant and he went completely limp.

Despite his strong grip, No Heart nearly dropped Dark Heart anyway. "Hey! Hey!! What are you doing?!" Despite No Heart's efforts, Dark Heart did not stir. No Heart quickly sank back to the ground and laid his twin on the floor. He grabbed Dark Heart by the shoulder and shook him. "Wake up!"

No response.

"What is wrong with you? I don't feel anything! Why are you tired?!" No Heart wondered if he was missing something that he could only pick up in a solid form, so he shapeshifted to match Dark Heart in shape. Immediately, he felt a tingle of unnatural iciness. _Darkness. The Empress's evil. Of course she'd have some resource in place to keep good creatures from sneaking into her vault. And because of my own darkness, I'm unaffected._ No Heart looked at his twin closely and realized that Dark Heart was slowly turning gray. _He can't stay in here much longer! I have to get him out . . . but he's too large for the tunnel now, and I can't change his form for him . . ._

No Heart could see only one solution. He changed back into shadow form, flew up through the crystals until he got himself back to level with the pendant – then he glowered at the red stone because he noticed it was now flickering weakly. _What little progress Dark Heart made is wearing off. I'll have to hurry_. With a loud sigh of resignation, he grasped the triangular pendant tightly in both hands.

* * *

_Only one more chapter to go – yay! I hope you don't mind another cliffhanger too much. I'll get the last chapter up as soon as my school schedule permits (hopefully within a week or two)._


	9. In Finality

_Final chapter here – and so the story is complete for the second time. I'm much happier with this version than the first version, and so I don't anticipate doing another total rewrite. I will probably keep tweaking this version anyway, though, as long as I keep catching typos or things that I think could be explained better._

_And now, I'm very curious – is there anyone who would want to have the original version posted somewhere so that you can compare the two? I don't hate the original version of this story – it was just too short, among other things. The original had a few scenes I really liked that I could not find anyway to transport into the new version. I suppose that might just be a typical outcome from completely rewriting a story._

_Anyway, I want to thank everyone who's stuck with this story through a second time. It was a lot of work to rewrite, and I find it very gratifying to have people willing to read the work that I spend so much time on._

_As always, I don't own Carebears, but I do claim Hale, Mira, and Floyd. As I look outside at our crazy snowstorm, I wish a Happy Impending Spring to all of you!_

**Darkest Hearts**

_by Maelstra_

Ch 9: In Finality

* * *

As hard as it had been to use the pendant to restore Dark Heart, it was noticeably harder to turn it now. No Heart strained with all the physical strength he could muster in his shadow form. His green gloves kept slipping as he tried to force the pendant which clearly did not want to be turned. Nevertheless, he persevered, and by brute force he made the pendant reach the three-quarters point of its rotation. Then, it would turn no further. 

No Heart strained, but then finally released his grip and glared at the pendant. The stone was glowing bright red again, but he suspected that if he left it for too long, the red light would go out, and the pendant would fall. And then he would have to start the whole process all over again.

_I can do this_. No Heart reset his shoulders in preparation. "I will do this." He clamped his fingers around the triangular shape as tightly as he could manage, and then turned it, leaning to the right and putting all of his body strength into it.

By all his exertions, the pendant rotated a barely perceptible amount.

"Grraaarrrgghh!!!!" No Heart released his grip and smacked the pendant with his fist. It did nothing – not even hurting his hand since a shadow had no sensation in its limbs. No Heart slowly reigned in his anger and considered his situation. _Dark Heart is fading away – the only thing I could do to prevent that is to purify the magic in this chamber. With my dark magic, I can do nothing to purify things _–_ the only thing I can do is release these crystals' energy and hope that that will help. So, it all comes back to mean that I must find a way to make this accursed pendant finish breaking the spell!_

No Heart fidgeted. He knew how the pendant worked – it needed caring to restore stolen caring. But how was No Heart, a self-proclaimed master of evil and hate, supposed to produce the caring necessary to fuel the restoring spell? _How could I care – I don't care about anybody –!_ No Heart cut himself off, realizing that that line of thought would accomplish nothing. _I admit that I seem to have feelings, and if I'm honest, I would have to admit that only a dead thing could be completely without feelings . . ._

The stone in the triangular pendant began flickering: a failing light, a shrinking window of opportunity.

_Okay, okay, so if I want to make this work, I have to care. Fine! I c- . . . I c-ae- . . . I. care. There, see?_ He grabbed the pendant again and wrenched it counter-clockwise. The pendant moved . . . slightly. The stone lit up fully again, but it still lacked almost a quarter turn to make a full revolution.

_Fine. Okay. It's a start – I can admit that I . . . care. But maybe abstract isn't strong enough? Yes . . . I need to be more specific. I . . . care about . . . what?_ No Heart ran through his mind every familiar thing from his life: his castle, his shadow minions, his spellbooks – none of them elicited any strong emotion. "What do humans . . . care about, anyway?" He tried to remember – then failing that, tried to guess. _I think they care about . . . other animate objects. Associates, pets, and the like._ No Heart then thought of Beastly and Shrieky. The notion of caring about those two made him shudder. _Only carebears could care about them!_

He glanced down, peering through the pale crystals, and tried to see how Dark Heart was faring. Then, he caught himself. _Why am I checking on him? Whether I can see him or not will not influence how he will fare! And why should I care how he's doing anyway . . . ?_

Finally, No Heart had to admit that he was in denial. _Okay . . . so I really do care, somewhat, about Dark Heart. I'm not very comfortable with the idea, but I do admit it. Is that good enough?_ No Heart wrenched the pendant again. The red light became strong once more, but it did not turn. "Grrrrrr." He glanced down through the crystals again at his brother, and saw only a brief glimpse – but it appeared that Dark Heart was starting to become transparent.

"Curse it all! Very well . . . if that's how it must be . . ." No Heart screwed up his courage and braced himself. "I admit that I care about Dark Heart! And, I don't care if the whole world knows it!!" No Heart bellowed. His voice echoed through the chamber, and he thought he heard his own words coming back, taunting him, 'care, care, care.'

He bit back another growl, instead focusing all his attention on the stubborn stone. As before, he grasped the triangular piece as tightly as he could, and threw all his weight into creating torque. Excruciatingly, painfully, irritatingly slowly, it turned. Thirty degrees lacking, and then just ten. Again the rotation became much more difficult, but No Heart refused to give up. _Dark Heart, you had better be alright after all I've just gone through!_

Suddenly, the pendant rotated freely, and it came free from the central crystal. Streams of blinding light shot out of the golden crystal, and then it shattered in a ultrawhite flare. No Heart covered his eyes – even in the shadow form, they could not take such abuse. He felt like he was falling, so he tried to put more power into levitating – but the weightless sensation persisted. He looked but could see nothing to gage his position from.

Then he slammed into something hard and lost consciousness.

* * *

Hugs jumped behind a half-shattered building, trying to hide from the Unspeakable's sight. She had lost sight of Tugs, and most of the others. They had managed to gather a group of ten to go against the Empress . . . but it had been largely unsuccessful. The Empress appeared to be immune to their 'stare,' and had simply called the Unspeakable to swallow those who were annoying her. 

The gigantic, slimy monster roared, but it almost sounded like it ended by choking. Hugs could not resist peering around the splintered wood to take a look. The creature was twisting, condensing, and pulling all its limbs closer to its main body.

"Hugs?"

She spun around and saw a small shadow that was looking increasingly like a carebear as the spell wore off. "Tugs! You're alright?"

"I dodged around the monster's other side. I was worried about you . . ."

"I was worried about you, too . . ."

"What's it doing now?" Tugs asked, puzzled at the monster's behavior.

Within a moment, the animate, black blob made a slurping noise and collapsed down to half its previous size. It wailed weakly, then shloomped and shrank down to a much smaller mass. The twin cubs, irresistibly curious now, darted over for a closer look.

The creature was now almost impossible to see above the mountain of rubble and debris it had created. It slurped and shrank once more, reaching the size of a single human. And then it exploded.

White light blanketed the whole area, washing over the entire visible region. As the energy touched the remaining buildings, they crumbled and turned to dust. Hugs and Tugs were surrounded by the light as well, but were completely unharmed. They watched in silent awe as the light dissolved all the debris and all of the visible city as well. After several minutes, the burst of light spent itself out and dissipated. The cubs found themselves standing on a vast plain that stretched out for miles in every direction, with nothing taller than themselves and the few other carebears who had evaded the Empress's monster.

Speaking of the monster, in the spot where it had expired was a brighter sphere of light, almost as tall as the original creature had been. Once the light from the explosion had completely faded away, this ball burst as well. From inside came numerous smaller lights, which each descended to the ground and turned into a solid shape. After a moment, several of the shapes started moving. With an victory shout, Hugs and Tugs rushed over to greet their friends.

* * *

Something smelled very pungent and sweet, and No Heart did not like it. He waved his hand around blindly, then finally found the smell to be originating from a gooey mass on his forehead. 

"Hey, take it easy. I just thought you needed something for that bump on your head."

No Heart finally decided to open his eyes. Instantly he closed them, then tried to squint. Strangely, the Empress's city seemed a lot brighter now. After his eyes adjusted a little to the brightness, he recognized the blurry figure with a mass of dark hair as Hale. No Heart sat up quickly, then rubbed a finger in the blob on his forehead. He found there was indeed a bruise underneath, but the goo seemed to be mostly cutting any pain. Whatever the ointment was, it stained his green-gloved fingertip a bright purple. No Heart wiped it on an edge of his robe, then looked around to try to orient himself. All he could see was miles of a flat plain covered with silvery sand, with the only breaks in the level being some small shapes off in the distance. "Why did you bring me here?"

"I haven't moved you, or your brother, actually." Hale sat down beside No Heart. "We'll have to ask the others exactly what happened."

"Ngh . . . What's going on?" Dark Heart stirred and slowly opened both eyes.

To No Heart's relief, his twin had fully regained his color, and seemed to be recovering well. "I finished the job with that blasted pendant after you fainted . . . and I'm not sure what happened after that."

Dark Heart stared. Then he sat up and continued staring. Finally, he grinned, "Well, just look at you now."

"What?" No Heart frowned. "Oh, Hale says that goo is just for my bruise . . ."

"No, no, no, that's not what I mean. Hale . . . can you make a mirror?"

Hale could, and he gave a plain, magically generated hand mirror to No Heart.

No Heart immediately understood why his brother was staring. He had already recognized that, at some point, he had unconsciously shifted forms – so, he was not startled to see his green hair or the dark magic tattoos. And No Heart also noted that the blob looked even sillier than he had feared.

But what Dark Heart had unquestionably been staring at were his eyes. "Blue?" No Heart squeaked.

"They look good on you," Dark Heart reassured.

No Heart expected that he would flinch at the mention of 'good' . . . but bizarrely, he felt no reaction at all. Just a memory of how he would have reacted before. "Hm. So, I guess I broke whatever . . . spell you were talking about?"

"Yep. How do you feel now?"

"Confused." No Heart stripped off the purple-stained gloves, and carefully ran his fingers through his hair, checking for other bruises. He seemed to be otherwise unharmed. _I guess I did fall at least part of the way – but not all, or I would have been hurt more seriously._

"So, Hale . . ." Dark Heart was adequately satisfied with his brother's well-being for the moment, so now he wanted to get some of his other questions answered. "What exactly are you and Songfellow? You're obviously not really human . . ."

Hale folded his arms in his lap, then looked searchingly at Dark Heart. "We are Sky Fairies. Our race used to do a great deal to help humankind, doing much of the work that the carebears now do: caring for people, and helping them learn to understand their feelings and care for others . . . But, because of the Empress's attacks on us, years ago, we were forced to retreat to the farthest corners of the sky kingdoms. With the exception of Songfellow, the rest of us have had few – if any – interactions with Earth ever since."

"I do remember that part, I'm afraid." Dark Heart sighed. "I'm terribly sorry. We caused your people so much suffering . . ."

"Tch, it's not all your fault," No Heart said, interrupting Dark Heart's attempt to angst. "We . . . were under the Empress's spell and just did whatever she told us to, without thinking. I didn't realize how strong the control was until . . . just now."

"Well, you were under the spell for much longer than I was," Dark Heart commented.

"Yeah . . . Hey! I wonder what happened to that shadow pendant."

"I don't know."

"The vault used to be somewhere around here . . ." No Heart got to his feet and started looking around.

Dark Heart quickly followed suit. "Sheesh, there's nothing here but sand. Maybe since we freed all the shadows, then the pendant couldn't exist anymore."

No Heart rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "That's a reasonable idea." He looked at his fingertips and saw they had turned black. With a grunt, he returned to where he had dropped his gloves, and started using one to wipe off his face.

"I guess I'd better ask Songfellow," Hale mused out loud.

"Huh?" No Heart paused and looked at him. "Ask him what?"

"Never mind. Shall we go see how the others are doing?" He pointed out to where those of the other invasion party were milling around.

"Oh, sure. Whatever," No Heart grunted. He noticed the purple goo was rapidly hardening. At last he gave up poking at it (and just hoped he could find a way to get it off later). No Heart made a quick effort to wipe the swirly, black paint off his arms, then he shoved his gloves into his sleeve.

"Race you," Dark Heart said, shapeshifting into a red hawk. He immediately took off.

"Hey!" No Heart quickly poofed into a similar, but green/violet hawk. "That's cheating! But I'll still win!" He flew like a green blur after his twin.

* * *

"I won," No Heart informed Dark Heart once the red-haired twin landed. 

"Yeah . . . I can see that." Dark Heart changed to his normal form, gasping for breath but grinning.

"Are you okay?" No Heart grabbed his brother gently by the shoulder.

"Yeah . . . I'm just not totally recovered yet. Don't worry though," he smirked, "I'll beat you for sure next time."

"In your dreams, perhaps . . ."

"Hey, are you two alright?" Songfellow Strum walked over to the twins. He looked perfectly well, and presently wore his white hat with a rakish tilt. "Did your plan to release the shadow vault work out?"

"Uh, yeah. I think so." Dark Heart glanced over at No Heart briefly for confirmation. "Did you guys get rid of that Yu'Ng-er . . . Unspeakable thing?"

Songfellow encompassed the whole plain with a wide gesture. "Apparently all this is the shockwave from it."

"Wow."

Hale finally caught up to them, and immediately went to talk to Songfellow. Meanwhile, several carebears clambered up to join the group. Songfellow's shadow-illusion on them had long worn off, and all were back to their rainbow colored selves. True Heart came up and took charge. "Yes – everything seems to be well now. Thank you, everyone."

"But wait – what about the Empress?" asked Tugs. "Is she gone now?"

No Heart mused, "She would likely be severely weakened by the release of the vault's energy . . . but she was not really dependant on it . . ."

"Probably not," Songfellow replied more firmly. "You see, her evil is like bad feelings: they are always there, lurking in the background, but with good feelings and love, we can keep them away."

"So the Empress will come back?" Hugs asked.

"Oh, eventually. But don't worry – we'll continue doing what we've always done, helping humans and others learn to care and share their feelings. And by doing this, we'll always be on guard and ready to stop the Empress again when she tries to return." True Heart concluded with a warm smile.

A long pause lingered after her words. "Well then . . ." No Heart finally spoke up into the silence. "I suppose I shall be going."

"Going where?" Dark Heart instantly demanded.

". . . Back to my castle."

"Ugh. Why do you want to go back to that creepy old place?"

"Well – it's . . ." No Heart paused. "Oh, I don't know. I suppose I just don't know where else I could go at this point."

"You could always come stay with us," True Heart offered sweetly. Hugs, Tugs, and a dozen other carebears added their accordance.

No Heart winced slightly. "Um . . . I appreciate the sentiments you're offering . . . But I don't think I'm quite ready for that . . ."

"But we'd love to have you!" Hugs said.

No Heart covered his face with one hand. "I know . . ."

Songfellow cleared his throat. "Actually, you guys have another option. Hale has pointed out that since you two are still here, mostly unaltered, that means that you are not creatures originally created by the Empress."

"Yes, we know that," No Heart answered a bit apprehensively. "We both remember a little bit of when she captured us . . ."

"Right," Songfellow continued. "So, perhaps you recall that the Empress captured many of our people. We assumed she just drained them all to create her shadow slaves – but it seems that in your cases, she chose a different tactic."

"So . . . you're saying that we really are like you?" Dark Heart eyes lit up. "I've been wondering for years, since I realized that I wasn't really a human . . ."

"Yes." Songfellow crossed his arms and smiled faintly. "No doubt you used to go by different names . . . but I'm quite convinced now that you are part of our race. And so, I'd like to give you two the option of coming back with us."

"Wow." Dark Heart suddenly frowned. "But wait – would we have to stay there forever? Could we go visit our friends?"

"Of course." Hale rolled his eyes. "We wouldn't keep you as prisoners."

No Heart frowned in thought. "What about Shrieky and Beastly?"

Songfellow laughed. "If they want to come, they are welcome, too. I was already certain before that Shrieky was one of our people."

"Ah. And Beastly? Heh. I don't even know what he is."

Hale answered matter of factly, "He's one of the last members of a race of earth sprites. They were practically legendary for their kind nature and helpfulness."

"You're serious?" No Heart made a strange face. "That hairball . . ."

"We should all be going," True Heart said, cutting into the conversation. "We need to check on the others back in Carealot . . ."

"And help Mira, too!" Hugs piped up.

"Of course. Don't worry," Songfellow assured. "In fact, someone might have already helped her wake up."

The carebears summoned several cloud cars, and started preparing to fly away back home, but Hugs and Tugs hesitated before Dark Heart and his twin.

"Promise you'll come visit us soon?" Tugs asked, coming over to give Dark Heart a hug.

"Of course, Tugs." Dark Heart crouched down to return the hug.

Hugs ran over and joined in the group hug. Then she abruptly turned and gave No Heart a squeeze around the knees. "I'm so glad you turned out to be nice after all!" she chirped.

No Heart flinched, sighed, then patted Hugs on the head. "I'm glad as well."

Hugs released No Heart, and Tugs gave him a quick goodbye hug as well. "Will you come visit us, too?"

"Oh . . ." No Heart frowned and glanced over at his brother, who gave him an encouraging smile. "If you really want me to . . . I suppose I can come by whenever he does."

"Great!" Tugs and Hugs both backed off and waved farewell before True Heart shooed them into a cloudcar. "Take care, then! We'll see you later!" Tugs yelled.

"You take care as well!" Dark Heart answered, waving back enthusiastically.

No Heart waved with only a slight hand movement. "See you . . ."

Songfellow chuckled, then grabbed both the twins with one arm. "What an adventure this has been! I'm really proud of the both of you."

"Are you sure your people will want us?" Dark Heart asked hesitantly. "I mean, after all, we did aid the Empress in attacking you . . ."

"It'll be fine." Songfellow chuckled again. "Don't worry. Besides, in helping us defeat the Empress, you have taught everyone – including myself – a very valuable lesson: you must never forget how much good you can find, even in the darkest of hearts."

**The End!**


End file.
